INVESTMENT AND 
ACHIEVEMENT 



WILLIAM LESLIE KING 









" ' 




ClassT BV^C - 

Book , Kf T 

Copyright If 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



INVESTMENT AND 
ACHIEVEMENT 



A Study In Christian Progress 



By 

WILLIAM LESLIE KING, D. D., 

A Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to South India. 



t 



CINCINNATI: 
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 

NEW YORK: 

EATON AND MAINS 






^^ 



COPTBIGHT, 1913, BY 
JENNINGS AND GBAHAM 






©CU857626 






3To ^ Pifc 



WHOSE WISE COUNSEL AND DEEP SYMPATHY DURING 

A QUARTER CENTURY OF MISSIONARY SERVICE 

HAVE MADE ME HER DEBTOR INDEED 



Foreword. 

It is with some reluctance, but without apology, that 
this volume is sent forth: reluctance, because it so in- 
adequately rehearses the marvelous story of the "In- 
vestment and Achievement" of the Christian Church; 
without apology, because it has been written under the 
deep conviction that such "A Study in Christian Prog- 
ress" may be useful in furthering to some degree the 
work of extending the Kingdom of God among men. 

The historical section may seem disproportionately 
long. It will, however, be found to be the merest out- 
line of the advance movement of the Church of Christ 
from land to land and through the centuries. The aim 
has been to make this section, though an outline only, 
connected enough to be of interest, and sufficiently com- 
prehensive to have value, as a record of what has been 
accomplished. 

If the question of investment and the returns there- 
for must be practically considered in the world's busi- 
ness arena, why should it not be a necessary and profit- 
able study in connection with the work of the Church? 

What, then, has the Christian Church invested in 
its world-wide work, and what have been the results of 
the investment made? What are the problems the 
Church faces to-day in view of world conditions, her 
equipment for service, and the binding force of the 
Great Commission? What is the outlook in the world- 
field? Is there danger that the Church by narrow vision 
and lack of devotion to Jesus Christ may fail to make 
the largest possible use of the results of past investment 

1 



FOREWORD. 

and of present opportunities and resources? Believing 
these questions to be of vital importance, attention is 
called to them in the following pages. With the hope 
that their treatment may help a little in the work of 
building up the Kingdom for the coming of which we 
work and pray, this "Study in Christian Progress" is 
sent forth. 

William L. King. 
Hyderabad, Deccan, India, 
August 8, 1913. 



Contents 



part I.— Investment* 

Chapter I. 
INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 



Page. 



Service of Jesus and the Apostolic Group — Service in the Post- 
Apostolic Age — In the Age of Controversy and Advance — 
After the Conversion of Constantine — In Spain and France 
— In the British Isles — Cost of Service — Service in Ger- 
many and Other Sections of Europe — In the Far North of 
Europe — Among the Slavonian Races — In the Frozen 
Regions Beyond — Character of the Work Done — Work in 
the Far East — Among Special Races — Service in the West- 
ern W T orld — Protestantism to the Fore — Fields of Labor 
and the Work Accomplished — Base for Future Operations. 17-91 

Chapter II. 
INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

Jew and Pagan, Allies in Persecution — Persecutions Under 
Roman Emperors, General View — Three Centuries of Per- 
secution in the Roman Empire — Methods Employed in 
Persecuting the Christians — Investment in Life Beyond 
Computation — Later Chapters in Persecution — A Peculiar 
Phase of Persecution — Persecution of the Albigenses — Of 
the W T aldenses — Of the Huguenots — Persecution in North 
America — In Various Mission Fields — Martyr Church of 
Madagascar — China in Furnace of Persecution — Repeated 
Persecutions in Turkey — Other Fields Consecrated by 
Martyr Blood — Closing Thoughts Regarding Investment 

in Life. 95-125 

3 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter III. 
INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 

Page- 
World Movements Financially Expensive — Cost of Various 
Wars and the Upkeep of Armies — Cost of Exploration and 
of Scientific Research — Building God's Kingdom in the 
Earth Demands Outlay — Support of Workers and Build- 
ing of Churches in the Early Church — Houses of Worship 
at a Later Period — Present Investment in Church Prop- 
erty — Amounts Contributed to Foreign Missions — Total 
Material Investment can not be Estimated — Whitened 
Fields and Open Doors Demand Large Outlay — Present 
Opportunity and Responsibility Matched by Financial 
Ability of the Church. 129-137 

Chapter IV. 
INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 

Place of Intercession in the Work of the Kingdom — Doctor 
John R. Mott Quoted on the Place of Prayer in the World 
Movement — Intercession of the Early Church — Prayer in 
the Days of Persecution — "Prayer Concert" Arranged in 
England — Day of Prayer at Hernhiit — Special Hours Set 
Apart for Prayer — Later Organized Effort — Annual Con- 
cert of Prayer Inaugurated, and Results — Result in Volun- 
teers for Missionary Service — Spiritual Blessing in the 
Home Church Waits on Faithful Stewardship — Prayer of 
John Hunt for Fiji — The Victory must be Gained by 
Prayer. 141-149, 

part II* — Hcbtewmeiit, 

Chapter I. 
THE CHURCH. 

The Church Itself Marks Large Achievement — Present Extent 
of the Church, Territorially and Numerically — Resources 
of the Church — Figures that Speak of Ability to do Great 
Things — Other Facts that Suggest Strength — Centers of 

4 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Work and Strength of Leadership — Wealth of the United 
States and Share of the Protestant Church — Protestantism 
in the United States and in the World — Number of Prot- 
estant Missionary Societies — The True Greatness of the 
Church is in the Character and Spirit of its Membership. 153-160 

Chapter II. 
OPENING UP THE WORLD. 

The Missionary and the Explorer — Motives Prompting to Ex- 
ploration — A Worthy Place in this Work must be Given to 
the Missionary Spirit — Opening up North America — Open- 
ing of Africa and the South Sea Islands — Early Missionary 
Explorers in Africa — Livingstone's Great W 7 ork — Other 
Great Names in African Exploration — What Missionary 
Explorers Accomplished — The Great Object of Missionary 
Exploration. 163-166 

Chapter III. 
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

Commerce and Christianity — Commerce has Derived a Four- 
fold Benefit from Christian Missions — Commerce Impos- 
sible Among Barbarous Peoples — Christianity Creates Con- 
ditions Essential to Commerce — Doctor Grenfell's Testi- 
mony — Doctor Moffat's Testimony — Christian Integrity 
Essential to Commerce — Christianity Furnishes the Dy- 
namic Needed to Arouse Stagnant Peoples like the Hindus 
to Commercial Activity — Christian Missions Back of the 
Railway Systems of Africa — Doctor Dennis on Commerce 
and Missions — Some Commercial Figures — Some Pertinent 
Questions and their Answers — Imperfect Industrial Condi- 
tions Among Non-Christian Peoples — Need and Influence 
of Industrial Missions — Natural Conditions in Africa and 
the South Sea Islands — The First Great Need is the Gos- 
pel — Various Missions in Africa — Conditions in India — 
Need in India, the Gospel — The Viewpoint of the State — 
Organized Effort in Industries — Industrial Missions have 
Justified their Right to a Place Among Missionary Agencies. 169-181 
5 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter IV. 

LITERATURE. 

Page. 
The Object of this Chapter is Twofold—The Results in Bible 
Translation and Distribution During the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury — Work of the British and Foreign Bible Society — Of 
the National Bible Society of Scotland — Of the American 
Bible Society — Great Advancement During the Nineteenth 
Century — Providing a Christian Literature — The Religious 
Tract Society — The Society for the Promotion of Christian 
Knowledge — The American Tract Society — The Christian 
Literature Society of India — General Literature Provided — 
Creation of Literatures where there were no Written Lan- 
guages — Christian Periodical Literature — Mission Publish- 
ing Houses and Presses — Christ the Center of the Great 
Literatures of Christian Lands — The Literatures of the 
Christian and of Non-Christian Faiths Compared. - 185-191 

Chapter V. 
SCIENCE. 

Achievement in Science by no Means Inconsiderable — Carey as 
a Scientist — Tribute of the Bengal Asiatic Society to Carey's 
Work — Value of David Livingstone's Scientific Work — 
Sir Bartle Frere's Tribute to Livingstone's Work — The 
Gulick Brothers as Scientists — Extent of Missionary Effort 
in Science — Special Tribute to their Work by Mr. H. H. 
Johnstone. 195-198 

Chapter VI. 
EDUCATION. 

Spread of Vital Christianity has Meant Intellectual Life and 
Growth — The Bible and Education — The Process of De- 
velopment Natural — The Influence of Christianity in Lands 
where there are Educational Systems — Education of Woman 
Under the Ban — Work of Lady Missionaries — Government 
and Commerce not Adapted to the Work Needed — The 
Adaptation of Christianity to this Work — Doctor James S. 

6 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Dennis on Education in India — Special Stress on Education 
in India — The British Blue Book on "Progress of Education 
in India" — Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser's Testimony — A Desire 
for Education Follows Christianity's Advance — The Ex- 
tent of Missionary Education — Number of Institutions and 
of Pupils — Dawn of Intellectual Renaissance in Mission 
Lands Due to Missions — To-day is the Day of Opportunity 
for the Church — Educational Achievement in Christian 
Lands. 201-207 

Chapter VII. 
SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 

Christianity and the Social Order — Non-Christian Faiths Pro- 
vide for No Such Service — Christianity Opposed to the 
Social Evils Fostered or Allowed by Non-Christian Re- 
ligions — Jesus' Method of Combating Social Evils — Result 
in the Roman Empire — Changes in the Social Order under 
Constantine and Justinian — Position of Woman in the 
Roman Empire — Laws Regarding Divorce — Concubinage 
and Marital Infidelity Common — Roman Family Life De- 
graded — Roman Empire Christianity's First Field of Social 
Service — Christianity and the Marriage Relation — Legis- 
lation Under Constantine — Slavery in the Roman Empire — 
The Slave No Legal Rights— Destruction of Child Life — 
Transformations Gradually Effected — Northern Europe in 
the Middle Ages — Condition of Woman Improved — Church 
Awake to the Evils of Slavery — Slave Trade Legally Pro- 
hibited Under William the Conqueror — Three Reasons for 
Crediting Social Reforms to the Church — Social Reforms 
in Christian Lands Still Needed — "Home" Unknown in 
Name or Fact in Non-Christian Lands— Statistics of Hu- 
manitarian Institutions. - - 211-220 

Chapter VIII. 
A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 

Apologetic Writings of the Early Church — The Achievement of 
the Church Its Great Apologetic — Treatment of Non-Chris- 
tian Faiths Should be Sympathetic — Of Founders of Great 

7 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Religions, Mohammed Alone Later than Christ — Strength 
and Equipment of First Band of Christian Workers — Chris- 
tianity's Appeal — Christianity's Demands — Christianity's 
Ministry — Christianity's Ideals — Christianity's Condition 
of Salvation — Social Systems of Non-Christian Faiths — 
Their Interpretation of the Supernatural — Non-Christian 
Religions Judged by Their Fruits in Social Life — Chris- 
tianity Transcendently Great in Influence — Christianity 
has a Sure Defense in its Advance and Influence — Christian 
Achievement a Sufficient Missionary Apologetic — 
Resume of the Social and Humanitarian Achievements of 
the Christian Church — Reflex Influence of the Christian 
Propaganda Appears in Spiritual Uplift to the Home 
Church — Testimony to Value of Christian Missions — That 
of Professor Gaston Bonet Maury — Of Alexander McArthur, 
M. P. — The Nineteenth Century — Philip Knobel, Minister 
from Holland to China — Professor W. M. Ramsay — Doctor 
John Henry Barrows — Bishop Phillips Brooks — Mrs. Isa- 
bella Bird Bishop — Robert Louis Stevenson — Doctor E. 
D. G. Prime — The Christian Propaganda Worthy of Sup- 
port by all Christians. 223-231 



Part HI — €be problem, 

Chapter I 
ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

The Problem W T orld-Wide — Occupation of the Field but Par- 
tial — Vast Areas Untouched — "Heart of Two Continents" 
Unoccupied — Untouched Millions of Many Lands — Num- 
ber Gathered out of Non-Christian Faiths Comparatively 
Small — Non-Christian Religious Systems — All of Asiatic 
Origin — Hinduism — Buddhism — Mohammedanism — Faiths 
in China — Faiths in Japan — In Korea — Fetishism — Ani- 
mism — These Faiths Index the Character of the Problem — 
The Task of the Church— The Two Non-Christian Mis- 
sionary Faiths — Resume of Extent and Character of the 

Problem. 235-252 

8 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Chapter II. 
ITS SOLUTION IS WITH THE CHURCH. 

The Great Commission Fixes Responsibility on the Church — 
Problem of World-Evangelization the Most Far-Reaching 
of All the Ages — What is Meant by the Solution of the 
Problem — Best in Plan Essential to Best in Service — A 
United Front Needed — A Nobler Generation Is Needed — 
Youth of the Church Must be Trained for Stewardship — 
Difficulties Beset this Work — Business Principles Needed 
for the Greatest Business on Earth. - 255-260 

Chapter III. 
PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

WTiat World-Conquest Presupposes — Men and Money Needed 
for Christian Conquest — Numerical Strength of Protes- 
tantism — Material and Educational Preparation — Majority 
of the Race Under Christian Rule — Wealth of Protestant 
Church — Rapid Increase of Wealth — Income from Various 
Sources — Evangelical Christianity Financially Equipped 
for World Problem — Bible, How Widely Available — Chris- 
tian Literature Widespread — Missionary and Native Force 
—Church Making only Limited Use of Her Great Equip- 
ment — Campaign of Church Army of Conquest and those 
of Earthly Governments — Comparison of Money Invest- 
ment, too — Per Capita Contribution versus Taxation for 
War — Church Amply Able to Meet Demands of Both 
Home and Foreign Fields — Dark Picture of Heathendom. 263-272 

Chapter IV. 
THE COST OF ITS SOLUTION. 

Great Investment Needed for Great Accomplishment — Cost of 
the Initial Step in Christian Conquest — Per Capita and 
Aggregate Contribution of Evangelical Christians to For- 
eign Missions — Size of Missionary Force — What Two Cents 
a Week Each Would Mean— Increase of 1890 to 1900— 
What the United States Per Capita War Taxation Aggre- 
9 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
gates for Evangelical Christianity — Cost of the Christian 
Propaganda Compared with Expense of Standing Armies — 
Compared with Cost of Warfare — Christianity in an Ag- 
gressive Campaign for World-Conquest — The Real Cost 
of World-Conquest that of Absolute Devotion to Jesus 
Christ — Parents Must Give Their Children — Service and 
Giving Must be Systematic and Adequate — The Per Capita 
Contributions of Various Churches — The Moravian Church 
and Its Missionary Zeal — What Similar Zeal would Mean to 
All Evangelical Christianity — The Human and Divine in 
World-Conquest — Scriptural System of Giving Needed — 
The Chinese and Ancestor Worship — Children in Non- 
Christian Lands Give to Idols — Cost of Heathen Systems — 
Our Christian Outlook should Lead to Lavish Outlay in 
World-Conquest. 275-288 

part IV*— Interrogations. 

Chapter I. 
WHAT IS THE TRUE MISSIONARY INCENTIVE? 

Importance of this Question — Is a Knowledge of Need the In- 
centive ? — Or the Grandeur of the Idea of World-Conquest ? 
— Or the Resultant in the Reward ? — Does the Joy of Serv- 
ice Serve as the Incentive? — Or the Inspiration of Whitened 
Fields ? — Is the Great Commission Sufficient? — True In- 
centive, the Constraining Love of Jesus — This the Secret of 
True and Constant Service — Generating of Spirit of World- 
Conquest Vital Question To-day — Instruction of Young 
Christians Should Embody This — A Narrow Vision Means 
Weak Spiritual Life — The Great Need in the Church, the 
Mind that was in Christ Jesus. 291-296 

Chapter II. 
WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT WINS? 

The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit that Wins — That Spirit in Paul, 
Stephen, and Others in Apostolic Church — In David Liv- 
ingstone, John Hunt, Raymond Lull, Robert Moffat, and 
10 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Others — Various Incidents in Modern Missions Cited — 
"Graves are Needed in Mission Lands" — Mission Lands 
Need Men and Women who are Willing to Fill Graves — 
The Responsibility of Christian Parents — Incidents of Pa- 
rental Loyalty — The True Spirit, and Missionary Volun- 
teers — The True Spirit, and Money for the Work of Chris- 
tian Conquest — Heroic Devotion Needed. - 299-306 

Chapter III. 
WILL THE WORLD-MOVEMENT PAY? 

What Does the Question Really Mean? — To the Truly-awakened 
the Answer is Easy — The Purpose of this Chapter — Com- 
mercially it has Paid — Those who have Profited by Com- 
merce should Contribute as a Token of Gratitude — The 
Christian Movement has Paid in More Important Ways — 
Doctor Claudius Buchanan Regarding Idolatry — Doctor 
Chamberlain's Report of the Testimony of a Hindu Priest — 
Christian Villages Oases in Non-Christian Lands — Trans- 
formations in Character and Life of Non-Christian People — 
Does the World-Movement Pay the Church that Carries 
it On ? — Does the Church Merit Full Approval for Work 
Done? — General Testimony of Christian Leaders that the 
Church Falls Short of Full Duty — Christians of Present- 
Day should not be Content to Leave Work it can Do to a 
Later Generation — Obedience to God Essential to Life of 
the Church — Will a Broad Vision Pay? — Principle Stated 
by Livingstone. 309-317 

Chapter IV. 
WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

"As Bright as the Promises of God" — Past Accomplishment as a 
Basis of Hope — The Question is asked Regarding Condi- 
tions in Foreign Fields — Admission of Christianity's Na- 
tional Influence — Japan, China, and India Looking to 
Christian Lands — What Does the Undermining of a Non- 
Christian Faith Mean?— The Native Agency Raised Up 
11 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Gives Encouragement — Figures Showing Growth — General 
Influence of Christianity in Non-Christian Lands — Bishop 
Thoburn Quoted on the Waiting Multitudes — "Fields are 
White and Harvests Waiting" — The Present Outlook from 
Standpoint of Home Church — Only One Hemisphere of 
the Outlook Found in the Foreign Field — What is the Out- 
look in the Various Christian Lands? — The Battle is the 
Lord's — Laborers Needed to Minister to the Waiting 
Multitudes— Have We Done What We Could? - - 321-331 



Investment and Achievement. 



A Study In Christian Progress. 



PART I.— INVESTMENT, 



CHAPTER I. 
INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 



The Investment in Service Authorized: 

"Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing 
them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded 
you."— Matt. 28: 19, 20. 



"I am among you as he that serveth." 

"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." 

— Jesus Christ. 

"A whole Christ for my salvation, a whole Bible for my staff, a 
whole Church for my fellowship, and a whole world for my parish." 

— Creed of St. Augustine. 

"It is great to be out where the fight is strong, 
To be where the heaviest troops belong, 
And to fight for man and God. 

"Oh, it seams the face and dries the brain, 
It strains the arm till one's friend is Pain 
In the fight for man and God. 

"But it's great to be out where the fight is strong, 
To be where the heaviest troops belong, 
And to fight for man and God." 

—Cleland B. McAfee. 

"Soldiers of the Cross, hear the final command from the Captain 
of your salvation: 'All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world.' These are omnipotent 
words: 'Go,' 'Preach,' 'Teach,' 'Baptize,' And the field is the world, 
'All nations,' 'Every creature.' This work has all the intensity of a 
death-struggle. Every force within the reach of Omnipotence is mar- 
shaled and marched to the front. Every motive which Infinite Wisdom 
could mold or fashion is poured red-hot upon the conscience. . . . 
Last of all, the Master Himself breaks out of the unspeakable glory 
into our very presence, and before our very eyes embraces our cross, 
that He may persuade us. In the very intensity of this dying, He 
cries: 'Go,' 'Preach,' 'Teach,' 'Everywhere.'" — Bishop Charles H. 
Fowler. 



CHAPTER I. 

Investment in Service. 



1. Service of Jesus and the Apostolic Group. 

No record of service in the field of Christian effort 
would be complete without a reference to the peerless 
service rendered by Jesus Christ. He inaugurated the 
Service of great work, and the service He rendered has 
Jesus. been the inspiration of all who have sought 

to build the Kingdom of God among men. He, who 
"came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," 
served as never man served. His life of ministry was 
only three and one-half years. His field of labor was 
confined to parts only of one small land. His means of 
travel was toilsome walking along the rocky and hilly 
paths of a rugged land or riding in a fisherman's little 
lake-boat. And yet the service He rendered has touched 
every land with a beneficent influence unparalleled in 
all human history. 

In the ministry of Christ there were embodied the 
various phases of work deemed needful in later times to 
found the Kingdom of God among new peoples or to 
Ministry of extend its sway over human hearts. It was 
Jesus Typical. Christ who set the example of teaching, 
preaching, and healing. His service, moreover, fore- 
shadowed to a remarkable degree the methods that 
later workers have deemed essential to success. He 
preached in the public place of worship and in the open 

2 17 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

air; to crowds, the group, or the single individual. He 
used the Divine Word as final authority, and presented 
the truth in plain statement and in parable. He drew 
on the events of His own age and the history of those 
preceding to illustrate and enforce the truth, and em- 
ployed the common things of every-day life to make 
the truth a living reality to man. 

How shall we characterize the service of Jesus? It 
was love-inspiring and service-inspiring; so earnest and 
eager that its only limits were those set by time and 
Nature of strength; as broad as the needs of all classes 

Jesus' and conditions of men — in a word, that heart- 

c * 

ful service that appeals to men and, touched 
withal, with a compassion that makes Christian service 
doubly effective. All classes shared in its blessed results. 
The high and mighty were not considered too exalted 
to need, His ministry, and none were so low and so 
morally polluted as to be passed by. No day was too 
sacred for His ministry of compassionate helpfulness 
and no place too humble for His presence and work of 
power and blessing. 

It is not our purpose to give in detail the deeds He 
performed in His life of great service. The Gospel records 
do that with matchless simplicity and beauty, and they 
are familiar to all. The purpose here is to emphasize 
the fact that never man served as this Man and to pre- 
pare the way for the record of service of those who fol- 
lowed in His footsteps of service for humanity. His 
life breathed the spirit of service and has inspired His 
people to serve. What they, in obedience to His com- 
mand, and under the inspiration of His life and spirit, 
have invested in service for humanity is the basis of 
our present study. 

The command, teaching, and example of Christ have 
18 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

combined to stamp the work of the Church as missionary. 
The service of the disciples began before that of the 
Service of Master closed. In the earlier service The 
Jesus Twelve, The Seventy, and perhaps others, had 

issionary. ft p ar t. The record is brief, but the essential 
fact is clear, namely, the early disciples entered into the 
service of their Master. For nineteen centuries suc- 
ceeding generations of disciples have entered into the 
labors of their Lord. No detailed record is possible. 
The most voluminous historians have only touched the 
fringes of the great subject. Enough for us that we 
have an outline of the service rendered and the inspira- 
tion of a few leading names. 

Much interest must forever center in the life-history 
of the apostles. Their nearness to Christ and their place 
in the very beginnings of Christian history forbid that 
Interest we snou ld think of them exactly as we think 

in Apostolic of others. Meager, however, is the historic 
record. We can trace the lives of Peter, 
James, and John with some degree of satisfaction, and 
yet their work is recorded in barest outline. In their 
age, as in every age, the record of service is fragmentary. 
It is not strange that the imagination should seek to 
supply the missing chapters in the lives of men and of 
Churches, and that tradition should have so large a 
place as it has. Nor is it strange that to the apostolic 
band should be attributed much more than the his- 
toric records will verify or the calm judgment of later 
times accept. It is safe, however, for us to conclude 
that, while Peter and James and John and that post- 
apostolic apostle, Paul, labored heroically in founding 
the Church, the larger apostolic company whose names 
so suddenly dropped from the pages of history preached 
the good news of salvation through Christ and gave 

19 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

testimony to Him whom they had known and loved. 
We can not go astray if we read into the aggregate of 
their life-service such toil and persecution, travel, be- 
trayal, danger, and imprisonment as made the lives of 
Paul and John heroic. We can not tell how well they 
wrought, but the far-flung battle-line of the Church 
before the close of the apostolic age compels us to believe 
that they were instant in season, out of season; that 
they knew perils by land and by sea; that they were in 
deaths oft. 

What is the brief outline of service that authentic 
historic records authorize for this band of apostles? 
After the Council at Jerusalem, the apostles separated, 
Apostolic *° meet no more. James, the brother of the 
Field of Lord, remained in Jerusalem and deeply im- 

pressed the Church there and the Jewish and 
Pagan populations by the purity of his life and his self- 
denying labor. Jude, brother of James and of the 
Lord, was active in propagating the gospel, but the 
place where he labored is uncertain. Matthew carried 
the gospel into Arabia, whither he was later followed by 
Bartholomew and Nathanael, after they had first 
accompanied Philip into Phrygia. Matthias did his 
work in Ethiopia; and James, the son of Alpheus, la- 
bored in Egypt. Simon-Zelotes gave his life to -the 
evangelization of Mauritania and Libya. Judas-Thad- 
deus is credited with laboring successfully in Mesopo- 
tamia, from Edessa as headquarters. Philip lived in 
Hierapolis, and exerted a great influence over all Asia 
Minor. The Churches of Colosse, Laodicea, and Hie- 
rapolis were confirmed in faith and encouraged in service 
by him. Andrew is said to have evangelized Cappa- 
docia, Galatia, Bithynia, and to have also gone into 
Scythia, Thrace, and Macedonia. Thomas is supposed 

20 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

to have preached in the districts adjoining Parthia. The 
most Eastern point of apostolic missionary effort appears 
to have been the Western border of India; and while 
there are very early traces of Christianity in India, the 
report that Thomas labored there is not worthy of con- 
fidence. 

The work of the Apostle Paul is too well known to 
need special mention. With labors more abundant than 
others who bore the apostolic name, he extended the 
Service of Church in the regions beyond, and by epistles 
Apostle Paul. t h at have mightily influenced the Church 
through nineteen centuries he confirmed them in the 
faith. The work of the apostles mentioned above sup- 
plemented his work at many points, and strengthened 
the Churches he had established. By his and their great 
and widespread labors a large company of laborers must 
have been raised up and thrust out to carry on the 
work. 

Without giving credit for service not historically 
verified, we may safely conclude that the apostles were 
abundant in labors. The extent of the Church at the 
Apostles close of the apostolic age testifies unequiv- 
Abundant in ocally to the fact that a large amount of 
faithful work had been done, and the reason- 
able conclusion is that these men whom Christ chose 
and trained had a large part in the work. We must also 
conclude that there were associated with them a large 
number of workers whose names have not come down 
to us. How else can we account for the widespread 
sweep and the numerical strength of the Church when 
the apostolic days closed with the death of the beloved 
disciple? To a brief study of the Church along these 
lines we now turn. 

W T hat was the numerical strength of the Church 
21 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

when the last of the apostolic band, in extreme age, 
ceased from his earthly labors? Estimate only can be 
Numerical made, for, of course, no attempt was made to 
Strength of keep a record of the Christians at that early 
date. It is safe, under such circumstances, 
to avoid extremely high estimates, and we shall probably 
be on safe ground if we place the number at five hun- 
dred thousand. When we remember that in the year 
A. D. 30 the number was only about five hundred, and, 
further, that the working-force at the beginning must 
have been comparatively small, we can not fail to see 
in the largeness of the growth of seventy years a tribute 
to the faithfulness and zeal of the Church. 

These, however, are not the only considerations that 
testify to noble service. These gains had to be made 
from the ranks of Jews and Pagans, who alike resisted 
Growth * ne advance of the Church on the one hand, 

Under and on the other pressed the battle even to 

pposi on. jitter persecution. The ranks of the Chris- 
tians were depleted not only by death's natural claim, 
but also by additional thousands who met violent 
deaths. Against such odds, this large body of Chris- 
tians was gathered out of bitterly opposing faiths. How 
many workers there were, no man can say. With rare 
exceptions their names have had no place on the records 
of Church history. We remember, further, that the 
weapons of their warfare were not carnal — that the 
victory was won by men and women who used none of 
the arms of earthly warfare, and yet triumphed marvel- 
ously. The results of their labors within the lifetime of 
a single man, the Apostle John, appeared in a Church of 
half a million souls, gathered out of many nations and 
in the face of hatred and opposition of both Jew and 
Pagan — a hatred that showed itself in opposition that 

22 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

meant plunder of goods, dungeon, fire, sword, and even 
death. Conquests won against such opposing hate and 
such bitter persecution speak in no uncertain tones of 
the heroic service of those who bore Christ's name. 
They also surely testify to an amount of effort that 
should challenge our admiration and inspire our 
zeal. 

But we have another viewpoint from which we must 
make our estimate of the work of the Church of the 
first century. How widespread was the Church at the 
Territorial end of that century, after seventy years of 
Extent. labor? Does the extent to which the borders 

of the Church had been pushed speak of praiseworthy 
faithfulness, burning zeal, and heroic service? The 
journeys of the Apostle Paul are well known to all 
Bible students. What those journeys meant, however, 
in real hardship, in view of the slow and dangerous 
travel of those days, may easily be overlooked. His 
own brief statement gives us the merest outline; but it 
is suggestive: "Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and 
a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in 
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my 
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in 
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, 
in perils among the false brethren; in weariness and 
painfulness, in cold and nakedness, in watchings often, 
in hunger and thirst, in fastings often." Those who 
supplemented his work in Asia Minor, Greece, and 
Italy, as well as in Syria and in the isles of the sea, 
could hardly have escaped similar experiences. 

Our sketch of the extent of the Church at the end 
of the apostolic history must be brief. 

We know the Church was planted in the countries 
of Asia Minor, namely: Cappadocia, Lycaonia, Galatia, 

23 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Pontus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycia, 
Cilicia, Lydia, Caria, Mysia; across the iEgean Sea in 
Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia; farther west across 
the Adriatic Sea in Italy, and possibly farther west still, 
in Spain; in Dalmatia; in the islands of Crete, Cyprus, 
and Patmos; and that to the south of the Mediter- 
ranean the gospel had penetrated to some extent, hav- 
ing reached Mauretania, Libya, and Egypt. While the 
gospel had thus worked out to the west along both 
shores of the Mediterranean, it had also been preached 
to the northeast as far as Mesopotamia and even Ar- 
menia, and to the southeast of Palestine in Arabia. 
Without giving credit to uncertain testimony that Chris- 
tianity was planted in India, we can see that a wonder- 
ful work had been done in obedience to the command 
of the Lord to disciple all nations. One can hardly 
wonder at Eusebius being so impressed that he said, 
"The apostles and disciples of the Savior scattered over 
the whole world, preached the gospel everywhere. " 

The fact that the gospel had been preached so 
effectively that the Church had been planted in the 
greatest centers of population of that age: in the centers 
Work Deep of learning, culture, and commerce; in the 
and Earnest. c Jties where Paganism and the Jewish faith 
were most strongly entrenched — this fact speaks elo- 
quently of the depth and earnestness of the work done. 
Note a few names in this connection: Jerusalem, Da- 
mascus, Syrian Antioch, Tyre, Sidon, Joppa, Csesarea, 
Ptolemais, Tarsus, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Pisidian 
Antioch, Ephesus, Colosse, Hierapolis, Smyrna, Per- 
gamum, Sardis, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Troas, Philippi, 
Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Rome, Alexandria, 
and many others. To establish a new faith in such cen- 
ters as these, where the strongest forces of the Jewish 

24 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

and Pagan faiths had to be met, was a work of such 
difficulty that our admiration is excited as we consider 
the result. 

The work done in these countries, and especially in 
their great cities, did not, of course, reach more than a 
comparatively small percentage of the populations; but 
Workers with five hundred thousand Christians scat- 

Raised Up. tered through these regions the leaven had 
surely been placed in the great lump of heathenism. 
The way had been prepared, as we shall see a little 
later, for a gain of one and one-half millions to the 
Church in the next century. This fact suggests that a 
great working force had been raised up as a part of the 
work already accomplished, or that the Church as such 
had been trained in aggressive work for winning the 
people to our Christ. Before closing this section, I 
wish to give some personal testimonies from the early 
age to the real strength of Christianity and the place it 
held among the people. 

Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the 
second century, says of Christianity's place: "There is 
no people — Greek or barbarian, by whatsoever appel- 
lation or manners they may be distinguished, however 
ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell in 
tents or wander about in covered wagons — among whom 
prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name 
of the crucified Jesus to the Father and the Creator of 
all tilings." 

Tertullian addressed the heathen thus: "We are of 
yesterday, and we already fill your cities, islands, 
camps, your palace, senate, and forum; we have left 
to you only your temples." 

The above may be somewhat exaggerated estimates 
of the place Christianity had taken, but we can not fail 

25 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

to give credit for widespread life and influence on the 
part of the Church when the Emperor Maximian 
Early declares in one of his edicts that "almost 

Testimonies. all " ^^ j e f t t k e wors hip sanctioned by the 
State for the new faith. The close of the first century 
marks the end of apostolic history, so-called; but the 
strong tide of apostolic zeal that had swept the Church 
on to such victories must have continued far into post- 
apostolic times. The only explanation of subsequent 
victories is found in a faith and zeal well worthy of the 
name apostolic. 

2. Service in the Post-Apostolic Age. 

The post-apostolic group of workers must have been 
much larger than that of apostolic times, but fewer 
names are known to us. Of those whose names have 
come down to us, by far the greater part have been 
remembered rather because of persecution endured for 
Christ's sake than service done in His name. For the 
most part results that must have depended on service 
may be taken as evidence to the fact, character, and 
extent of the service rendered. When profession of 
faith in Christ meant danger or loss of goods, life in a 
dungeon, and oft-times even death itself, the Church 
did not grow from a half million to two millions m 
numerical strength in a hundred years without labor of 
such quality, extent, and zeal as should inspire the 
Church even in our day to heroic effort in the name of 
Christ. 

We look to what they did before even asking who 
they were. For the present let them all be nameless, as 
the most must ever be to us. To begin with, this name- 
less company added to the Christian Church about one 
and a half millions of people as a net gain within one 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

hundred years, and swelled the Church in two centuries 
and a little over from the close of the apostolic days 
Growth to about five millions. In other words, the 

of Church. numerical growth of the Church in two 
hundred and twenty-five years was from one-half a 
million to five millions — a net gain of four and a half 
millions in two and a fourth centuries. This result was 
brought about by a company of men and women whose 
names we can not for the most part know. "By their 
works ye shall know them;" and, judged by these re- 
sults, they must be counted as worthy of special 
honor. 

This great addition to the Church was made not 
only in the lands where it had been planted under 
apostolic leadership, but also in the regions beyond. In 
The Lands the second century Christianity reached as 
Reached. f ar as Edessa in Mesopotamia, and some dis- 
tance into Persia, Media, Bactria, Parthia, and the 
south of Gaul and Spain. It is probable that Chris- 
tianity was introduced into India about 190 A. D. by 
Pantsenus, a Christian teacher of Alexandria. The work 
of evangelizing Armenia and Arabia, begun in the first 
century, was pushed forward in the third century. In 
this period the gospel spread to middle and upper 
Egypt, and perhaps in the fourth century to Nubia, 
Ethiopia, and Abyssinia. 

Another phase of work in the second century was 
the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular 
language of Egypt in three dialects. But in spite of this 
development of the Church, and the multiplied agencies 
employed, Egypt was never fully permeated by the 
gospel. 

Proconsular Africa was reached in the second, if not 
in the end of the first, century. The exact time and the 

27 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

means are not known. During the third century Chris- 
tianity was active and prosperous in Africa, and reached 
its highest point early in the fifth century under the 
influence of Augustine; but, after his death, gave way 
to vandal barbarism, and later still, in the seventh cen- 
tury, yielded to the Mohammedan invasion. 

In Europe Rome became the great center. In the 
middle of the third century the number of Christians in 
Rome was probably fifty to sixty thousand, or about 
Rome one-twentieth of the entire population of the 

as a Church city. From such a center Christianity natu- 
rally spread to all the cities of Italy. In this 
period seven missionaries were sent from Rome to Gaul. 
One of them founded the Church in Paris. In this 
century, too, the Church, already planted in Spain, be- 
came widespread and strong. 

This rapid survey of the spread and numerical 
growth of the Church during the second and third cen- 
turies is sufficient to emphasize the point we wish to 
The Working make — namely, that a working force was in 
Force. j^g field, to which should be given great 

credit for results that can not be counted otherwise 
than worthy of a great army under divine guidance and 
with divine empowerment. 

It is pleasant to note some of the prominent names 
of this great era in the history of the Church. Those 
great in the line of the Church's defense of Christianity 
Great against Paganism are divided into two classes 

Names. — the Greek apologists and the Latin apolo- 

gists. The former flourished in the second and the 
latter in the third century. The Greek apologists being 
trained in Greek philosophy, their defense of Christianity 
was characterized by the Greek system of thought and 
method of argument. Their apologies were purely 

28 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

defensive, as Christianity was on trial, being bitterly 
assailed by Pagan writers. The leading names in this 
class of apologists are: Aristo, Quadratus, Aristides, 
Justin Martyr, Melito, Miltiades, Claudius, Apollinaris, 
Apollonius, Bardesanes, Irenseus, Athanagoras, The- 
ophilus of Antioch, Tatian, Hermias, Clement of Alex- 
andria, Hippolytus, and Origen. 

The Latin apologists differed in many respects from 
the Greek. They had been trained as rhetoricians, not 
as philosophers. They stood for the defense of Chris- 
tianity in the third century, when, building on founda- 
tions broadened and strengthened by the apologists of 
the preceding century, they could go a step further and 
even undertake an assault on Paganism. Prominent 
names in the group of the Latin apologists are: Ter- 
tullian, Minucius, Felix, Cyprian, and Arnobius. 

The work these men did is testified to by the bulky 
and valuable apologetic literature that has come down 
to us from those two centuries, and by evidence of a 
Apologetic still larger mass that suffered destruction at 
Literature. an ear }y d av< Xhe value of such service can 
not be computed. It must, however, be admitted that 
very great and special value attaches to a service that 
placed the Christian faith clearly before the thinking 
classes of Paganism and showed the latter to be wanting. 
Of no less value, probably, was their work as a means 
of confirming the wavering in the Christian ranks. It 
is interesting to note of what they wrote, and we append 
here a few of the subjects they discussed: Athanasius 
wrote on "The Incarnation of the Logos." Eusebius 
took as themes "Evangelic Preparation," under which 
he advanced the usual arguments against Paganism, and 
"Evangelic Demonstration," when he discussed the 
positive evidences of Christianity. 

29 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

"The Healing of the Heathen Affections" was The- 
odoret's theme, while Cyril of Alexandria replied to 
Julian, using the forceful caption, "Against the Impious 
Julian/' Augustine wrote as his great apologetic, "On 
the City of God;" and Salvianus discussed "Providence 
and the Government of the World." 

But these apologists were only one wing of the 
Christian army of that age. The victories won from 
A. D. 100 to 313 were not gained except by a host of 
,. , laborers who went everywhere preaching the 

Workers and gospel and testifying to the grace of God. 
the Victories Those victories appear in the figures that 
mark the net growth of the Church (about 
1,500,000) against most deadly opposition; in the fact 
that Grseco-Roman Paganism was obliged to give place 
to Christianity as the religion of the Roman State; and 
in the great extension of the borders of the Church in 
spite of all obstacles. 

We pause in our study at the close of this eventful 
period to ask whether the work accomplished during 
this period, as suggested by the above brief and frag- 
The Church mentary outline, does not drive us to the 
at Work. conclusion that the Church had been at work, 
and that, too, in desperate earnestness. Such results 
under such conditions forbid our picturing the Church 
as being at ease. We can not fail to rise from such a 
study with the vision of an army largely equipped with 
the whole armor of God and giving its life in service to 
plant more widely the banner of the cross, and at the 
same time to entrench itself more strongly at every 
point. More than that, we must see back of that army 
a host of people who supplied the army at the front and 
constantly reinforced it. Who can read that early 
history of conflict and victories against such tremendous 

30 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

odds without a quickened pulse-beat and an inspiration 
to better service in the present? 

3. Service in the Age of Controversy, and Advance. 

The next period of the Church, beginning in the 
year A. D. 313, was characterized by so much of con- 
troversy that it has usually been thus designated in 
Church history. For the present study we have chosen 
to add to that designation, for, while there was con- 
troversy, and that in abundance, controversy was the 
sphere of labor of the few only, while the great Church 
was reaching out like a conquering army, and great 
advance as truly characterized the period under review 
as did the fact of controversy. 

In the beginning of this period the Church appears 
in a new relationship — that of alliance with the State. 
We have seen how, up to this time, the Roman State, as 
Church Pagan, has been arrayed against the Church. 

and State. Persecution has been made easy hitherto by 
the fact that Christianity has been under the ban of 
illegality. The only prestige of the Church before Con- 
stantine was that of its claim to a divine origin and 
authority, and that given by Pagan hatred exercised 
even unto death. Now it is to have the support of the 
State, for with the conversion of Constantine Paganism 
gave place to the new faith espoused by him. It would 
not be strange if there was much rejoicing in the ranks 
of the Christians at that time. Under the new regime 
they would expect to be safe, their rights in general 
respected, their lives secure. But if such was the case, 
their rejoicing should have been with trembling, for the 
future held new dangers, and those of a more seductive 
type. Where the blood of the martyrs had proven to 
be the seed of the Church, favor with government was 

31 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

to prove a hindrance to that spirituality without which 
the best results in the extension of the Kingdom of 
Christ can not be reached. 

The numerical gain in the succeeding centuries was 
such as to give great encouragement, if that alone be 
considered. Numerical gain in the Church, however, 
must be always given a background of the real condi- 
tions and be considered also with reference to the spirit 
generated. Prominent in the background now is the 
State, with popularity and prestige as the result, while 
the spirit of the age was, on the one hand, worldly and, 
on the other, controversial. That questions should 
arise — questions of great moment — can not be wondered 
at. That on those questions there should be a great 
difference of opinion is not strange. That thinking men 
should enter the field of controversy and seek to settle 
such questions by argument is no matter of surprise; 
and that out of all the controversy there should come 
parties unyielding and antagonistic each to the other 
would be expected. Such was the case. Great were 
the questions they discussed. Those questions were 
fundamental, having to do with the Deity of Christ 
and of the Holy Ghost, and thus the whole mystery of 
the incarnation and of the Trinity, the relation of the 
Divine and human natures in Christ, and the original 
state and the nature of man. 

Bitter was the spirit often engendered. Clearness of 
vision was doubtless often obscured by the heat of argu- 
ment. The thing we wish to note here is, that this new 
Service of phase of service meant the charting of some, 
Controversy. at i east> f the rocks and shoals the Church 
must avoid, and piloting her in safety through a most 
dangerous part of her course. To this service not a few 
gave themselves. The great names that have come down 

32 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

to us from that age are for the most part those of the 
men who engaged in this work. 

As in the case of the apologists of the earlier period 
of the Church, these controversialists seem to have been 
divided into Greek and Latin, and, as in that case, the 
The Contro- former far outnumbered the latter. The 
versiaUsts. chief among the Greek fathers are Eusebius 
of Csesarea, Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, 
Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Didymus of 
Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, John Chrys- 
ostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Ephraem the Syrian. Chief 
names among the Latin fathers are: Lactantius, Hilary 
of Poitiers, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. 

Those who know the work of the above-named 
leaders in the field of controversy will neither minimize 
the amount nor depreciate the value of the service they 
gave to the Church. 

4. Service in Extending the Church After the Conversion 
of Constantine in the Year A. D. 313. 

We have already noted somewhat in detail the ex- 
tent of the Church when Christianity became the 
official religion of the Roman Empire under the changed 
relationship, and we note now its entrance into other 
lands and among other and far different peoples. 

In the Roman Empire itself a new problem was 
faced. Thus far the question had been how to plant the 
Church in the midst of Paganism against persecutions 
The New well-nigh overwhelming. Now it was, how to 
Problem. extend the Church and keep it humble and 
faithful when the Christian faith had become popular. 
The danger of the Church losing heart under the hot 
blast of persecution may have been very real, but a 
3 33 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

greater danger, even, threatened when the followers of 
Christ were called upon to stem the tide of worldliness 
that threatened to engulf the Church. 

It may have been fortunate for the Church of Christ 
that the disintegration of the Roman Empire had al- 
ready begun before Christianity had been given the 
Decline prestige of its protection. Had Rome's 

of Roman dream of world-empire in perpetuity been 
ptre ° realized, the new role the Church must play 

would probably have proven much harder than the old 
one had been. A day of new conditions was, however, 
at hand. Rome had been weakened in well-nigh every 
part by moral laxity — disregard of all principles except 
that might makes right. Out of this sprang a profligacy 
in expenditure and in life that the world has never seen 
exceeded. New races had meanwhile been developing 
that knew nothing of such effeminacy as had been 
gradually undermining the Roman people. Those races 
were now to come in conflict with the Roman Empire 
thus weakened but unaware, as yet, that its strength 
had departed and its glory must now wane. But at the 
same time that these races were gaining their victories, 
they were to learn the power of a new faith, even the 
Christian. If the Christians of that eventful period had 
hoped that alliance with the State would help them- in 
the world-conquest for Christ, the decline and fall of the 
empire must have dissipated such hopes. While the 
borders of the Roman Empire were to be gradually nar- 
rowed, those of the Kingdom the Christian disciples 
were seeking to establish were to be stretched ever wider 
until the whole earth should be encompassed. The 
conquerors of the Roman Empire must be conquered 
by the faith of Jesus Christ. 

34 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

Brief must be our review of the progress of Chris- 
tianity during this period. At almost the same time 
that Constantine gave his imperial sanction to Chris- 
Progress of tianity, the Christian faith entered the little 
Christianity. State of Georgia from Armenia, and was also 
planted in Suabia and Bavaria. About A. D. 330 
Frumentius became the bearer of the gospel into Ab- 
yssinia, and twenty years later the Scriptures were 
translated into the language of that people, probably by 
him. In 341 Ulfilas became the apostle to the Goths, 
and the record of his work among them is a most inter- 
esting chapter in the onward movement of the Church. 
The Goths were the first among barbarous peoples to 
reap any large results in general civilization from the 
acceptance of the Christian faith. His people had lost 
the art of writing, and Ulfilas sought to restore it to 
them. He composed an alphabet and translated into 
the language of the people the entire Bible except the 
two books of Samuel and the two books of Kings, which 
he omitted because he feared for their influence upon his 
warlike people. 

There were others who labored among the barbarous 
people of that time whose work was worthy of special 
mention, but we must pass with only reference to 
Valentinus and Severinus, who shared the toil and the 
triumph of Ulfilas in his great work. The close of this 
century marked an epoch in the work in Egypt, when 
the Pagan temple, called the Serapeum, witnessed the 
terrible torture of Christians and was then transformed 
into a Christian Church. There is much obscurity sur- 
rounding the planting of Christianity among the Van- 
dals, the Gepidse, the Suevians in Spain, the Visigoths 
of France, Ostrogoths of Pannonia, the followers of 

35 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Odoacer, and the Lombards. We are privileged, how- 
ever, to make record of the fact of the entrance of the 
Christian faith among all these peoples. 

The fifth century opened with important events that 
showed advance in the work of the Church. Chief 
among these were the translation of the Scriptures into 
Important Latin (the Vulgate) by Jerome, and into the 
Events. Armenian by Mesrob. We shall have occa- 

sion farther on to emphasize the greatness of this work 
of Bible translation, and here merely mention what was 
done. The fields that demand special mention just 
here are Spain, where work was carried on successfully 
among the Suevi and Alani; and Ireland, Austria, and 
France. The mention of Ireland at once calls up the 
name of St. Patrick and his perilous and self-denying 
labors. The name we find connected with the work in 
Austria at this time is Severinus, who has been already 
mentioned as an associate of Ulfilas in his work among 
the Goths. We have the record of his having established 
a monastery near Vienna, where he trained laborers for 
the work in Pannonia and Noricum. 

From this point the development of the Church can 
probably be most satisfactorily followed by tracing the 
movement by countries and people that came under its 
influence. 

5. Service in Spain and France, 

The early history of the Church in Spain is in obscu- 
rity. Paul's purpose to visit Spain is a part of the Scrip- 
ture record, but whether realized or not we can not 
certainly tell. Clement of Rome, however, writing 
before A. D. 100, states that Paul "taught righteous- 
ness in the whole world and reached the boundary of 
the West," a term that at that time was generally under- 

36 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

stood to refer to Spain. Irengeus, who was a great 
leader in France before the end of the second century, 
writing about A. D. 185, mentions "Churches which 
have been planted in Spain;" while Tertullian, a little 
later witness, refers to "all the limits of Spain" as be- 
lieving in Christ. It is known that about A. D. 305 a 
council was held in Granada. In the middle of the 
third century, too, Cyprian of North Africa wrote a 
letter to Christians in Spain. His letter shows that 
Christianity must have been quite widespread at that 
time. 

We have just mentioned Irengeus as a great leader in 
France in the latter part of the second century. Pothi- 
nus was, however, the first missionary of whom we have 
certain knowledge. Celtic-Roman Gaul had been evan- 
gelized to a large degree before the dawn of the fifth 
century. 

With the baptism of Clovis, A. D. 496, we begin a 
new chapter in the extension of the Church in Europe. 
He was the chief of the Franks, and his conversion was 
primarily due to the influence of his wife, Clotilda. 
She was a Christian when he married her, and he allowed 
her to worship as she wished. When children were 
born to them, he made no objection to their baptism. 
At the same time he was indifferent to all appeals and 
would not himself yield until, when in battle with the 
Alemanni for the supremacy of Gaul, he believed him- 
self to be about to suffer defeat. In his hour of extremity 
he vowed to abjure his Pagan faith and become a Chris- 
tian if victory were his. When he returned victorious, 
he recounted the event to Clotilda, and, after consulta- 
tion with his chiefs, he, with three thousand of his 
followers, was baptized. Clovis became the only ruler 
in the West who followed the Nicsean confession. 

37 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

A question naturally arises as to the character of the 
conquests thus won in the name of Christ. That Clovis 
became spiritually-minded and a transformed man can 
Character not be claimed. At the same time it must 
of Conquests. ^ e admitted that he did become a valiant 
defender of his new faith. His arms were victorious, and 
his territory was extended by additions from the Bur- 
gundian and Visigothic kingdoms. Through his influence 
his new faith was spread with the advance of the borders 
of his kingdom. His warriors were influenced by what 
they saw of the Christian faith among the peoples 
among whom their warfare was carried on, and many 
of them were baptized, some from good but probably 
far more from low motives. 

One might expect the pages of history to record that 
the Frankish Church became the great evangelizing 
agent among the rough, barbarian peoples of Europe. 
The Frankish ^ a( ^ ^he conversion of Clovis and his people 
Church been a real work of divine grace in the heart, 

ng * instead of a mere mental assent to the new 
faith, such might have been the case. As it was, how- 
ever, no real missionary spirit was created, and not only 
were the barbarian races left in their Paganism, but 
that Paganism even crept into the Frankish Church. 
Europe had to look elsewhere for the leaven that would 
permeate its barbaric life and really transform its 
peoples. Before we can follow the spread of Chris- 
tianity in Europe, we must study its rise among the 
peoples who were to supply the missionaries for that 
great work. This brings us to the study of the planting 
and development of the Church in the British Isles. 



38 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 



6. Service in British Isles. 

We must now hastily review the spread of Chris- 
tianity throughout the British Isles. The earliest in- 
fluence of the Christian faith may date back to the 
Roman invasion. However that may be, the people 
had relapsed into their original barbarism before definite 
missionary movements reached them. Tertullian made 
the boast that parts of the British Isles not touched by 
the influence of that invasion had received the faith 
within the first four centuries. We may conclude that 
Christian missions were early planted in Britain, but 
obscurity shrouds such efforts until the fifth century, 
when Pope Celestine sent a bishop named Paladius 
there. 

The first really clear and interesting chapter in the 
history of missions among Celtic peoples is found in 
Ireland. The great missionary to Ireland was a man 
jjj e said to have been named Succath, who won 

Apostle of for himself the name of Saint Patrick and 
was designated "the apostle of Ireland." 
The probability is that he was a Briton and that his 
parents and grandparents were Christians of the old 
British stock. If so, this is a ray of light on the ob- 
scurity surrounding early Christianity in Britain. 
Probably Christianity had been introduced into Ireland 
before the time of Saint Patrick, but he is the first to 
do a great and wide-reaching work. He had large suc- 
cess, so large, in fact, that legend found enough material 
to surround his name with wonder and invalidate to 
some degree really authentic history. 

Other names in connection with the evangelization 
of Ireland are not so prominent, but Paladius, men- 
tioned above, was one and Brigida another. The labors 

39 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

of the former probably preceded that of Saint Patrick, 
and that of the latter followed it. It is claimed that 
Other Patrick and Brigida (Bridget, Bride) raised 

Names. U p hundreds and even thousands of mission- 

ary workers, who not only turned Ireland to Christ, 
but made it for one hundred and fifty years after Pat- 
rick's day the greenest spot in Christendom. We know 
little, comparatively, of her, but in a day when monks 
and nuns studied and lived in the same institution she 
is credited with establishing many of these co-educational 
monastic institutions. The mantle of Ireland's great 
apostle may be said to have fallen on Benignus, who 
became his successor and followed up and extended the 
work established by him. 

The name Scotland replaced the old name Caledonia 
after the people called Scots came from Ireland and 

. , had gained the dominant power in the land. 
With the people from Ireland, Caledonia re- 
ceived also the first knowledge of the Christian faith. 
In the history of missionary effort in Scotland we find 
among the most prominent names those of Ninian and 
Columba and Kentigern. 

Ninian seems to have labored in Southern Scotland. 
His work was approximately a century earlier than that 
of Saint Patrick in Ireland and of Kentigern in Sco't- 
Ninian and land. Both of these missionaries to Scotland 
Columba. were from West Briton. The name of Co- 
lumba, however, must be given the first place among 
the missionary laborers in Scotland. His birth is placed 
in A. D. 521. He was of noble birth, and his birthplace 
was Gartan, a place in the rugged Donegal Mountains. 
He did not begin his missionary labors until he was 
forty-two years old, but he became the most widely- 
known and influential of the missionaries who labored 

40 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

in the British Isles. The boat by which he and his 
twelve companions sailed to Argylshire, on the coast of 
Scotland, was a frame of wicker work covered with 
hides. He began his work on the boundary-line between 
the Scots and the Picts; the former being nominally 
Christians, served as a base from which to work upon 
the latter, who were rude savages. From the little 
island of Iona, where he had first established himself, 
Columba and his fellow-laborers carried on their work 
far and wide among the rude and savage people, not 
only through Scotland from sea to sea, but also braved 
the Northern Seas in their boat of skin as far as the 
distant Hebrides and Orkney Islands. 

As already stated, the first beginnings of Chris- 
tianity in England are hidden in obscurity. It is cer- 
tain that something had been accomplished before the 
F . . Church had been firmly planted in Ireland 

and Scotland by Patrick and Columba. The 
time had now become ripe for a definite effort to evan- 
gelize the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, and that 
effort was to be directed from widely-separated evangel- 
izing centers. We will sketch in merest outline this 
history. 

The names of Gregory the Great and Augustine 
must be given a prominent place in connection with 
the movement inaugurated in Rome. How Gregory 
was stirred by sight of a fair-haired boy exposed in the 
Roman market-place when he learned that he belonged 
to a people unreached by the gospel, and how he ear- 
nestly desired to be the messenger of God to a people 
who appeared to him to be angelic in their physical 
appearance — these are facts too oft repeated and too 
well-known to need another repetition here. The 
honor of being that messenger was denied to Gregory, 

41 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

but his desire to help towards their Christianization was 
fulfilled after he became pope and sent Augustine with 
a company of forty monks on that distant and perilous 
mission. 

It was in the summer of 596 that Augustine and 
his companions set out, but more than a year passed 
before they reached their field of labor. This long 
Gregory and delay on the way was due to his followers 
Augustine. becoming terrified by the dangers and dis- 
heartened by the difficulties, with the result that they 
insisted on Augustine returning to Rome to induce the 
Pontiff to excuse them from the perilous mission. This 
Augustine did not succeed in doing, but the commission, 
when repeated, was recognized as obligatory upon them, 
and so they set out from Aix in Provence, where they 
had delayed for a year while seeking to escape from the 
mission to which they had been assigned. Their route 
lay by way of Aries, Vienna, and Tours to the sea-coast. 
There, having taken Frankish interpreters, they crossed 
and made a landing on the Isle of Thanet, and then sent 
word of their arrival and the mission on which they 
had come to the Saxon king, Ethelbert. The story of 
Augustine's meeting with the king is too long to be 
repeated here. Suffice it to say that Ethelbert gave 
heed to their message — a message he must have heard 
before, for his wife, Bertha, was a Christian — and was 
baptized on June 2d in the year 597. The story of 
Ethelbert and Bertha sounds much like that of Clovis 
and Clotilda, and among the Saxons, as among the 
Franks, the baptism of the king was quickly followed 
by that of large numbers of his followers. 

Augustine's course was not entirely smooth, for he 
had to do with a British Church already established, 
even if not altogether organized. He made an effort to 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

unify the Church by forming a liturgy for the Anglo- 
Saxon Church from those of the Roman and Gallic corn- 
Effort at munions. He also called a conference with 
Unification, j- ne British clergy, but they were not pre- 
pared to yield to any of his demands, and the unification 
sought was not effected. Augustine's successor, Lau- 
rence, labored as had Augustine to reach the Saxons and 
win them from their heathen faith, and also followed up 
his effort to win over the Christian Britons and Scots to 
conformity with the Roman Church, at least in the 
observance of Easter, but without success. Before the 
close of Augustine's career three men had come from 
Rome who were destined to have an important part in 
the great work — Mellitus, Justus, and Paulinus. The 
two former were later consecrated bishops over the 
sees of London and Rochester. 

Ethelbert died in 616, and his son, Eadbald, refusing 
to adopt the Christian faith, serious trouble arose for 
the missionaries from Rome, and they were expelled 
Ethelbert from his kingdom, but were later recalled, 
and Another chapter in the advance of the work 

or urn na. un( j er ^- ne missionaries of this period had to 
do with Northumbria, at that time a powerful kingdom. 
We are here reminded of two previous chapters in our 
history — that of the conversion of Clovis, chief of the 
Franks, and Ethelbert, the ruler of Kent, for, as in 
those cases a Christian queen and a bishop were factors 
in the nominal evangelization of the ruler, and through 
him of his people, so was it in Northumbria. Ethel- 
burga, daughter of Ethelbert and Bertha, became the 
wife of Edwin of Northumbria, and with the same agree- 
ment, as in the case of her mother, that she should have 
full liberty in the observance of her own religion. The 
bishop who accompanied her to Northumbria was 

43 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Paulinus, who has been already mentioned. This is the 
beginning of a very interesting chapter in English his- 
tory that we can not even outline here. We must con- 
tent ourselves with a few words only on the outcome, 
namely — Edwin's acceptance of Christianity because he 
believed the Christian's God had given him the victory 
over the King of Wessex — a result he had not been able 
to reach until he had vowed to become a Christian if he 
gained the victory he sought. He hesitated for some 
time, but finally yielded and, in accordance with his 
pledge, received baptism. The Venerable Bede has 
given a most interesting account of this event, showing 
how in the final step he was influenced by the head- 
priest, named Coifi, who took sides against the religion 
of which he had been a priest, and by one of his nobles, 
who measured the two faiths and made his decision on 
higher grounds than merely temporal advantage. The 
old priest went even farther and destroyed the very 
altars at which he had officiated in heathen rites, and 
the king then yielded and received baptism on the 12th 
of April, 627. 

I As in the case of Clovis, Christianity received a great 
impulse from the conversion of the king. In company 
with Paulinus he traveled, widely seeking to propagate 
his new faith. Disaster soon visited the mission, how- 
ever, when Edwin fell while fighting against a powerful 
British confederacy headed by Penda. Paulinus deemed 
it expedient to leave the scenes of desolation and take 
refuge with the widowed queen and her children in 
Kent. 

We must now once more glance at the missionary 
movement working out from Iona, since it became a 
factor in the problem of the evangelization of North- 
umbria and an even more extended section of England. 

44 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

When Oswald came to the throne after long exile, in 
which he had come in contact with the Scot-Irish mis- 
sion at Iona, where he had been baptized, he appealed 
to that mission for a bishop to labor among his people. 
A favorable response was given, but the first man sent 
lacked the quality essential to missionary service among 
such a people. His successor, however, was Aidan, who, 
with others who came from Iona and labored with him, 
re-established and then extended Christianity in the 
provinces over which Oswald reigned. The work went 
on until Christianity had reached Wessex, Mercia, Essex, 
and Sussex and a national Church had been established, 
thus bringing to a close what may be counted as the 
missionary period in the evangelization of England. 
This period extended from 596 to 689. 

7. The Cost of Such Service. 

Before reviewing the work of evangelization in other 
lands, we pause to emphasize the thought we wish to 
impress by this historical review, namely — that the 
establishing of the Church and extending its borders 
cost heavily in service. It is possible to read even the 
fullest records that have come down to us and yet get 
no just conception of what labor men and women put 
into the task. If we trace the course of the movement 
that planted Churches in the Roman Empire in apos- 
tolic and post-apostolic days, we shall note that it was 
largely along the great Roman highways, of which 
Rome had built up some seven thousand miles, and by 
which the great centers of religious and commercial life 
could be reached. Rome had also reached a high point 
in literature, law, and the arts. The background of the 
service there was Paganism, with the best results in 
civilization that have ever been reached without the 

45 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

influence of a divine revelation. We can hardly over- 
estimate the difficulty of the service demanded for the 
work of the Church under such conditions. Even there 
travel almost constant and wide-extended like that of 
the early disciples of Christ must have meant, as previ- 
ously suggested, weariness, danger, and sometimes 
death. 

What, however, must the toil and travel have meant 
when the gospel was carried to France, Spain, Gaul, Ire- 
land, Scotland, and England? To carry on this work 
the bearers of the good news had to travel through the 
unbroken forests, brave the dangers of unbridged and 
ofttimes swollen rivers, live among the barbarous and 
constantly warring peoples, endure the hardship of life 
in huts and in caves and exposure to all that the rugged 
climate of these regions necessitated. Think of those 
early Celtic missionaries setting out over those tem- 
pestuous seas in their skin-boats and of the dangers and 
hardship incident to such travel. Remember that these 
travels were not a pleasure excursion of men whose lives 
were largely spent in ease, but that they traveled widely, 
their land journeys being slow and tedious, with frequent 
accompaniments of danger, and their sea and river trips 
no less slow and toilsome, and even more fraught with 
peril. Remember, too, that they labored among war- 
like people who held life of little value. To evangelize 
such barbarous peoples under such conditions required 
service in nature heroic and in amount incalculable. 
Their zeal in service, their devotion to the great work 
to which they had put their hand, their faithfulness even 
unto death, their heroic spirit that braved all diffi- 
culties — these things should inspire us to better service 
while we rejoice in the fruits of their labors. 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 



8. Service in Germany and Other Sections of Europe. 

The part that Germany has played in the history of 
the world and of the Church makes the study of the 
introduction of Christianity among the Germans of 
peculiar interest. We have seen how the tide of mis- 
sionary effort swept to the then farthest west of the 
world; but its influence was to be felt throughout 
Europe on its returning sweep. Thus were the Frankish 
Churches to be revitalized and the masses of the bar- 
barians of Europe to be reached with the gospel. We 
have already noted that the Frankish Churches lost 
their aggressive power after the death of Clovis, and 
were in addition influenced by the heathenism from 
which they had come, but in the midst of which they 
still lived. Christianity had not been blotted out, it 
had not ceased to at least have a name to live; but it 
had lost the zeal that lies back of the aggressive cam- 
paign needed for the work of the evangelization of 
heathen peoples. There was, therefore, a demand at 
this time that help should come to the Germans from 
some other source. That source was to be the same as 
that from which the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms received 
their greatest aid, namely, the Celtic mission Churches 
already mentioned. 

The name "of Columbanus holds the first place among 
those of the Celtic missionaries to Continental Europe. 
Of noble birth and good education — a man of rugged 
w , . character and the heroic spirit, and with an 
Columbanus unyielding purpose and quenchless zeal — he 
J™* . was admirably adapted to the great work to 

which he set himself. This great pioneer 
missionary went to France with twelve companions. He 
was well received by Guntram, a grandson of Clovis, 

47 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and found a field prepared and apparently waiting for 
him. That field did not, however, meet his ideal of a 
field for his missionary labors. Pushed on by a spirit 
that seeks the most rugged fields to till and the greatest 
obstacles to overcome, he sougth out the Suevians in the 
wild ranges of the Vosges on the borders of Burgundy. 
There, amid well-nigh inaccessible mountain defiles, he 
and his companions lived, giving themselves to tilling 
the soil and laboring to evangelize the heathen people 
around them. Banished from there because his life and 
preaching so seriously condemned the gross immorality 
of the court of Burgundy, he sought the headwaters of 
the Rhine, and at Bregenz, at the south end of Lake 
Constance, he found a new field of labor, and founded 
another monastery. At that time he was advanced in 
age, for he was over forty years old when he first set 
out on his great mission, but in his attack on heathenism 
he showed all the zeal of youth. That his zeal was always 
according to knowledge may be called in question, for 
we read that he burned the temples of the Teutonic 
gods, broke the cauldrons in which beer was brewed to 
offer to Woden, and threw their gilded idols into the 
lake. We are not surprised that the outcome of such a 
fiery attack on the religion and worship of the people 
was hostility so bitter that he was compelled to again 
move on to a new field. He next sought refuge and a 
field of labor in Lombardy, amid the Apennine Moun- 
tains, and, as in the other places, he builded a mon- 
astery. 

In passing we pause to notice that Switzerland was 
evangelized from a monastery near Lake Constance 
that had been founded by Gallus and others who had 
been associates of Columbanus in the work. Two 
pupils of Columbanus, Eustasius and Agilus, pushed the 

48 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

work into Bavaria. Three other Irish missionaries, 
Colman, Kilian, and Totnan, went as far as Wurtzburg 
on the River Main. 

But space will not permit us to follow out this inter- 
esting story in the history of the world as it had to do 
with the section of Europe under review. The move- 
ment swept on, strengthened by the missionary force 
from England, more than a thousand years before the 
Englishman, Carey, felt the thrill of desire of world- 
conquest for Christ and sought a field of labor in India. 
The labors of Fidolin in Switzerland, Suabia, and Alsace 
must pass with the mention, as must also that of Em- 
meran, who gave up his see in Aquitania and devoted 
himself to the evangelization of the heathen tribes of 
Pannonia. 

We can not pass by the work in Frisia and the ad- 
jacent regions without recording a few names of his- 
toric importance. Eligius, a prosperous and pious gold- 
Saint Eloy and sm ith who carried on his trade and preached 
Associates in and then gave himself wholly to preaching, 
chose Frisia as his field, and is known in 
history as Saint Eloy, is worthy of wider notice. Aman- 
dus, too, early in the seventh century, and Willibrord, 
near its close, wrought so as to be worthy of extended 
notice. The former came from Aquitania and the latter 
was a native of Northumbria. Others are Livinus, an 
Irish missionary who suffered martyrdom, Wilfred, Ech- 
bert, the two brothers Ewald and Adelbert, and Weren- 
fried, Wulfram, and others too numerous to record, 
appeal for more extended mention for their work's sake; 
but we must refer the reader to the pages of the Church 
historians. The labors of these men in this field ex- 
tended to the year 719. 

Up to the eighth century the propagation of the 
* 49 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

gospel in Germany had not been so much by a general 
and organized plan as by the voluntary activity of 
Boniface in individuals. Both Irish and Anglo-Saxon 
Germany. missionaries had had a part in the work, as 
we have seen, but without a concerted plan. The 
Teutonic leaders Wilfred and Willibrord had labored 
here for their own people. Up to this time, however, 
no leader of the whole work had arisen. The leader 
needed appeared in the person of Winfrid, known in 
history as Boniface, and who gained for himself the 
designation, "the father of Christian civilization in 
Germany." Winfrid had hoped to preach the gospel in 
Friesland, but the time of his arrival on that mission 
was not propitious, as Radbod, the chief, was at war 
with Charles Martel, and persecution of the Christians 
had broken out. A second attempt to work there 
having failed, he received authority to labor in Germany. 
Thuringia became the scene of his earliest missionary 
effort. Later, having learned of the death of Radbod, 
he repaired to Frisia and labored there for a time with 
Willibrord, whom he might have succeeded in the work; 
but declining to do so, he plunged into Hessia, where 
his efforts were rewarded by the conversion of two 
chiefs and of large numbers of their people. 

In the year 723 Boniface was made bishop. His see 
revealed a plenteous harvest ready to be gathered, and 
but few laborers for the great and glad task. He there- 
Boniface fore appealed to England for more mission- 
Reinforced, aries, and many responded. In Northumbria 
and Saxony the gospel message met with prompt and 
hearty acceptance, and the field itself supplied a large 
number of laborers. Later Boniface was cheered by the 
arrival of his sister, named Walpurga, who came with 
thirty companions, and of two kinsmen, Winnibald and 

50 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

Willibald. The widespread victories of Charles Martel 
were a factor in the work at this time, as they were 
constantly opening up more and more of the old Pagan 
territory to the light of Christian civilization. Boniface 
seems to have been a simple-minded, conscientious, and 
remarkably zealous and successful man. We reluctantly 
turn aside from further study of this epochal period in 
the world missionary movement. That a great work 
was done can not be denied, and that there were heroes 
in that day few will question. The regions even further 
north must now claim our thought for a little while. 

9. Service in the Far North of Eruope. 

The credit of being the first missionary to the Danes 
has been given by some to Willibrord, his work dating 
back to near the close of the seventh century, it is 
Work in claimed. It was not, however, until 822 that 

Denmark. regular missionary work for the Danes began. 
The occasion was as follows: Harold Klak, King of 
Jutland, appealed to Louis-le-Debonnaire, son of Charle- 
magne, soon after his accession to the Frankish throne, 
to favor his claim to the throne of Denmark. Louis 
consented, and an army of Franks and Slavonians was 
provided to aid him. It was considered an auspicious 
time to inaugurate missionary work among the Danes, 
and so a company of missionaries accompanied the 
expedition. The leader was Ebo, Bishop of Rheims and 
the Primate of France. Halitgar, Bishop of Cambray, 
accompanied him. Their earlier missionary operations 
are largely lost in obscurity. After a time King Harold 
was obliged to flee to Louis for protection. While among 
the Franks, he and his queen, together with his retinue, 
received baptism, and when they returned to Denmark 
they were accompanied by two monks — Ansgar and 

51 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Autbert. They began their work in 827, but two years 
later Ansgar was obliged to leave the country when 
Harold was again driven out. During the two following 
years Ansgar established a mission in Sweden, and was 
then made Archbishop of Hamburg, with a view to his 
directing missionary work throughout Scandinavia. 

The first effort to establish the mission in Sweden 
was not without serious difficutly and great danger. 
The vessel of the first missionaries was attacked by 
Work in pirates and overpowered, and they barely 

Sweden. escaped with their lives. All they had taken 

with them to win the favor of the king and to equip the 
new mission went into the hands of the pirates. But in 
spite of such difficulties and the undergoing of great 
privations and hardships, the gospel was successfully 
planted in that country. 

We can not fail to here call attention to the fact that 
Denmark was first to give encouragement to modern 
missions. The land where it is claimed the names of 
Norway and mar tyrs to the Christian faith would fill a 
Modern volume, the land of a long, bloody history 

while contending parties fought for suprem- 
acy — this land of the Far North, the home of the most 
hardy and fearless and accounted the most cruel of men, 
was to send out the first missionaries of the modern 
missionary period to Greenland and India, to give pro- 
tection to Carey and the earliest English missionaries 
in India and provide an asylum for the Moravians. 
The history of the Church in these Northern lands is a 
part of a history as interesting and thrilling as any 
story of adventure. We can hardly imagine the diffi- 
culties under which the hardy missionaries carried on 
their work. There was confusion everywhere. The tide 
of feeling, to-day favorable and helpful, would to-morrow 

52 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

be most bitter against them. But they labored on, 
although it took two hundred years after Ansgar died, 
in 865, before this rugged land, bitterly hostile to the 
Christian faith, had been brought under the sway of the 
gospel; and this good result was not reached until 
large numbers of English missionaries had been called in 
and scattered through every part of the land. We can 
not pass this subject without recording certain names 
prominent in that eventful period, such as Gauzbert, 
Ardgar, Rimbert, Pappo, Gautbert, Nithard, Erimbert, 
Ansfred. It has been mentioned that a number of 
English missionaries came over before the conquest of 
these lands was complete. Among these we may men- 
tion Sigwald, Sigfrid, and BodufT. We here record the 
fact that Norway was evangelized during the tenth 
century and the early part of the eleventh, and the 
further fact that, so far as real missionary effort in 
Norway is concerned, it must be placed almost entirely 
to the credit of the English. 

10. Service Among the Slavonian Races. 

The events we now record occurred during the ninth 
and tenth centuries. The home of these races was the 
territory from the Elbe on the west to the Don on the 
Home of east, and from the Baltic on the north to 
these Races, j-he Adriatic on the south. They were a rude 
people whose lives were devoted to war and pastoral 
pursuits. They had not been accessible to Roman civ- 
ilization and religion, as had the barbarous peoples to 
the west. The earliest trace of Christianity we can find 
First among these people is the conversion of the 

Converts. sister of the Bulgarian prince Bogoris while 
she was held as a captive in Constantinople, and who 
returned to her brother's kingdom in exchange for a 

53 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

monk who had been taken captive by him. On her 
return she labored hard with her brother to induce him 
to accept her new faith. Her efforts were in vain until 
a famine visited his country and all appeals to the 
national gods had failed, when he sought the help of 
his sister's God. The famine having been stayed, he 
yielded and was baptized by Photius, the patriarch of 
Constantinople. Shortly afterwards, when he desired a 
painter to decorate his palace, the emperor sent him 
the monk Methodius. As a part of his work, Methodius 
painted a picture of the "last judgment," in which the 
fate of the heathen was made to appear so terrible that 
Bogoris was greatly moved, and put away the idols to 
which he had clung, and many prominent in his court 
were induced to become Christians. The opposition on 
the part of the people was, however, so intense as to 
give rise to a rebellion among his subjects against the 
new faith. After a season of unrest, during which Greek, 
Roman, and Armenian missionaries sought to bring 
Bogoris and his people into their respective faiths, the 
Greek prevailed and Bulgaria came under the Byzantine 
patriarchate. With this opening up of Bulgaria to the 
Christian faith, the way was prepared for its introduc- 
tion in the other sections of the Slavic territory. 

We have just mentioned Methodius who, when em- 
ployed by Bogoris to decorate his palace, painted for a 
higher master and set the tide Christward in Bulgaria. 
Methodius This man and his brother Cyril became the 
and Cyril. apostles of the Slavic people. These two 
brothers seemed to have been raised up for such a mis- 
sion. They were probably of Slavic descent, but if not, 
had been brought up among the Slavs who had settled 
in Macedonia, and grew up with a command of both 
the languages. They were born in Thessalonica and 

54 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

reared in a Christian home, had the advantages of 
university careers at Constantinople, where their widely- 
different gifts were developed — Cyril's in the line of 
philosophy and Methodius in painting. We have already 
seen the practical results of Methodius' genius when 
guided by Christian insight and fired by Christian zeal. 
Cyril, it would appear, preached, but with little effect, 
however, to the Bulgarians. 

The kingdoms of Moravia and Bohemia were in- 
habited by pure Slavonian races. Among these peoples 
the Macedonian missionaries Cyril and Methodius were 
Work in well-received, first by the Moravians and 
Moravia and shortly after by the Bohemians. The work 
among these peoples began in 863. The work 
these brothers did was fundamental and constructive to 
such a degree as to be counted monumental. They 
found the people without a written language. They 
constructed an alphabet and gave to the people the 
beginnings of their religious literature in the Bible and 
a liturgy in their own tongue; and then, after the death 
of Cyril, Methodius fought the battle for them by 
which they gained the right to worship God in their 
own language. A question must arise here as to whether 
the secret of the influence of the Moravians on the 
religious life of the world and on missionary activity is 
not to be sought in the work of those two brothers at 
the dawn of the Christian day in their land. 

We must glance for a moment to Russia in this 
connection. The Princess Olga was the first eminent 
convert in that land. Having learned something of the 
Work in Christian faith, and desiring to learn more, 

Russia. gjjg undertook a journey to Constantinople in 

935. She there accepted that faith and was baptized, 
taking the name Helena. Returning home, she sought 

55 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

most earnestly the conversion of her son Swiatoslavs. 
He, however, was a barbarian of the barbarians — a 
warrior of the roughest type — and her exhortations 
First were of no avail. Her grandson Vladimir 

Converts. gave promise of being more susceptible to the 
gospel message, but he held out for a long time against 
influences of many kinds and from many sources that 
were brought to bear upon him. Finally, however, he 
yielded, after having vowed to become a Christian if 
successful in the siege of a stronghold called Cherson. 
His baptism was immediately followed by that of a 
number of his followers and of his twelve sons. His 
first act was to destroy the symbols of the old heathen 
faith, and the next was to order his people to receive 
baptism immediately. At the word of their ruler, they 
flocked to the River Dnieper and, standing in the water, 
holding their children in their arms, recei\ ed baptism by 
companies, the priest reading the ritual from the shore 
and pronouncing one name for the entire company — 
thus did Russia take her place among the European 
countries that had accepted the Christian faith. One 
other woman besides Olga had an important place in 
this movement, namely, Anne, the sister of the Greek 
emperor, who, when Vladimir made the final condition 
of baptism his marriage with her, consented because a 
whole nation might thus be won to the Christian faith. 
We can not follow the onward sweep of this mis- 
sionary movement more than to record that it soon 
Work in embraced Poland and Pomerania and the 

Other Lands. Island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea, which was 
the last stronghold of Paganism in that land. It was 
near the close of the thirteenth century when Finland 
and Lapland were Christianized. 



56 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 



11. Service in the Frozen Regions Beyond. 

It may seem strange to refer to Iceland, Greenland, 
and Labrador in such connection as this, for it is hard 
for us to realize that these icy regions of the Far North 
had more than a place on the map a thousand years 
ago. That the difficulty of travel and the obstacle to 
colonization and Christianization should have been 
counted surmountable by even the hardy seafarers of 
the Far North does not easily cease to be a matter of 
surprise. The difficulties in travel are suggested by a 
stretch of six hundred miles of storm-tossed Arctic sea; 
by the smallness of their boats, and by their limited 
knowledge of the science of navigation. The obstacles 
to carrying out plans for establishing colonies there and 
Christianizing the people appear in the fact that all 
timber for building and all breadstuffs must be imported. 
The Norwegian discovery of Iceland dates back to 
A. D. 861, and their efforts of colonization began in 874. 
Stranger than all this is the fact that they found traces 
of earlier missionary effort, that dated back to the days 
of the zealous and indefatigable Irish missionaries who 
pushed out, as we have already noted, in their boats of 
skins to far-distant islands in the Northern Sea. It is, 
perhaps, even harder yet for us to realize that from 
those early days Iceland has had an exceptional record 
among the nations as regards the education of her 
people and the creation of a literature. We can not go 
into this interesting history or even sketch the history 
of the movement to Greenland and Labrador. It must 
suffice here to call attention to the fact and record names 
most closely and influentially connected with this mis- 
sionary history, such as Thorwald, Fredrick, King Olaf 
Tryggvison, Stefuin, Thaugbrand, Leif (who discovered 

57 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the coast of New England). For three centuries from 
1409 there is no record of any missionary activity in 
Greenland. The subsequent history we must leave for 
future record. 

12. The Character of the Work Done. 

The nature of the missionary movements we have 
just been tracing is such as must command our reverent 
thought. It is true that much was done in ways that 
seem utterly out of place in a propaganda of the faith 
of Christ. We do not like to think of buckling on 
the sword or raising the ax to advance the bounds of 
Christ's Kingdom. It is repulsive in the extreme to us 
to think of a barbarian ruler having his condition of be- 
coming a Christian met, especially when that condition 
was that he should have a Christian emperor's sister 
for his wife. No less hard is it for us to become recon- 
ciled to the baptism of a horde of barbarians at com- 
mand of their chief. But we must remember the char- 
acter of the age in which these things were done, and 
give credit to a zeal to establish the Church which, 
while often not according to knowledge, was daunted 
by no dangers and was quenched by no difficulties. 
That a higher civilization grew up in the track of such 
missionary movements; that so often a truly devout 
spirit was begotten; and that the way was prepared for 
larger and spiritual results — these considerations should 
reconcile us in some degree to methods of work that we 
could not approve to-day. And further, we must again 
call attention to the fact that the sum total of effort 
put forth in the name of Christ increased very mate- 
rially the investment in service that has been made to 
carry the gospel to all men, and that a great company 
of workers was raised up in those far Northern lands 

58 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

we can not doubt. Nor can we doubt that In the aggre- 
gate there was a great host raised up and thrust out 
whose hearts God had truly touched and whose faith- 
fulness and zeal, as well as the results of their labors, 
would be an inspiration to us, if the whole history were 
before us. 

13. Service in the Far East. 

The countries of Southern and Eastern Asia require 
no extended treatment here, but must not be omitted. 
Christian effort does not reach back beyond the last 
decade of the thirteenth century except in the case of 
India, to which reference has already been made. The 
Franciscans entered China in the year 1292 and India 
in 1520. The Jesuits under the great missionary leader, 
Francis Xavier, attempted the conquest of Japan in the 
year 1549, and India three years later. Representatives 
of the same society entered China in 1583. The Jesuits 
gained a foothold in Korea through the influence of a 
Jesuit chaplain to the Japanese Christian, General 
Korishe, in the Japanese invasion of that country in 
1594. Space can not be given for even an outline of 
what was done, nor is it necessary, as real foundations 
for a Christian civilization were not laid. As devotion 
unto death characterized this effort in the lands of 
Southern and Eastern Asia, reference must be made to 
them in the next chapter. 

14. Service Among Special Races. 

In the seventh century, and the first half of the 
eighth, a distinct change was wrought along the shores 
of the Mediterranean, in Syria and Egypt, in Northern 
Africa and Spain and Persia, by the impetuous onsweep 
in a mighty wave of the religion that had just had its 

59 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

first beginnings and had girded itself for conquest in 
the desert of Arabia — the religion of Mohammed. It 
is worthy of record, though the record must be made 
with deepest regret, that it quenched the fire kindled by 
the Christian missionary movement in many places, 
and in many others left the Christian faith only a name 
to live. The history of this movement is an important 
study in world movements, but does not come within 
the scope of this present study. We call attention to it 
here because of the fact that a new field, so to speak, for 
Christian missions was created, and the further fact 
that, while some sections already Christianized were 
conquered by it, a movement for its conquest was else- 
where inaugurated. The conquests of the Saracens 
were remarkably rapid and • thorough. Jerusalem fell 
into their hands in 637, and Syria, Egypt, and Persia 
yielded to their arms in the next fourteen years. North 
Africa was subjugated in 707, and four years later they 
had swept over almost all of Spain. It looked as though 
the Frankish Churches must meet the same fate, but 
Charles Martel checked the tide of invasion and con- 
quest and swept back the Saracen hosts. 

The names of the earliest missionaries to the Sara- 
cens are Francis Assisi and Raymund Lull, though the 
former's service was hardly to be counted, as his work 
Earliest Mis- seems to have been confined to a single visit 
sionaries to to the Saracen hosts and an earnest effort to 
the Saracens. win ^ j eader to f ^ j n Ch]rfst< But Ray . 

mund Lull gave himself to the task with courage, zeal, 
and a constancy of purpose and effort that fully entitle 
him to the credit of being the first great missionary to 
the Moslems. His life by Doctor Zwemer is well worthy 
of a careful reading. Born in 1235 and martyred in 1315, 
he had a long life, the great dominating purpose of 

60 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

which was the conversion of the Moslem. The scene 
of his labors was Tunis. He wrote much, was of a 
gentle spirit, and saw some fruit of his labors. He has 
been rightfully accorded a high place among the mis- 
sionaries who have led the way in opening up the new 
fields to the gospel. 

More terrible than the Saracen invasion of the West 
was that of the Mongols from Tartary. Russia, Poland, 
and Hungary were invaded and largely conquered, and 
Efforts to even Germany and the shores of the Baltic 
Convert the were threatened. Their ruler, Genghis Khan, 
listened to representatives of the various 
world faiths who sought his conversion. Buddhist and 
Mohammedan missionaries pressed the claims of their 
respective faiths, and the Roman Pontiff, disturbed by 
fear, perhaps, as much as inflamed by zeal for their 
conversion, sent an embassy, headed by Ascelin, to their 
camps in Persia. He having failed because unwilling to 
bend to Oriental customs, a second embassy was sent 
to them in Tartary under a Franciscan named Johannes 
de Piano Carpini. The journey was made through 
Russia, and entailed great hardships and dangers of 
many kinds on the band of Franciscans. While greater 
tact was employed this time, the result was no more 
encouraging. These events occurred in 1245 and 1246. 
Later, in 1253, another attempt was made, but this time 
by Louis the Ninth of France, who had heard of the 
willingness of the Mongols to receive the Christian faith. 
The embassy sent by Louis was under a Franciscan 
named William de Rubruquis. This embassy pene- 
trated to the very heart of the Mongol Empire, found 
the great Khan tolerant of all faiths, so that a Christian 
Church, two Mohammedan mosques, and a dozen 
heathen temples stood side by side. The Khan gave the 

61 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

representatives of each religion a chance to state the 
case for his faith and to discuss religious questions with 
those of the other faiths, and then gave his decision 
against all. After the seat of the Mongol Empire was 
transferred to China, about 1258, other attempts were 
made. The Christian faith was tolerated, and some 
success was gained for a time. John de Monte Corvino, 
a Franciscan monk, and a companion named Arnold, of 
Cologne, carried on the work for some time. Nothing 
of lasting value seems to have been accomplished, except 
in the translation of the Scriptures into the Tartar lan- 
guage, although very special attention was given to 
teaching the children and to the effort to train up a 
native ministry. 

Spain was the scene of an effort on the part of the 
Church of that country to convert the descendants of 
Abraham and the followers of Mohammed. We can not 
Work in attempt to picture the condition of things in 

Behalf of Spain in Church and State and social life at 
that time, but note that the spirit generated 
by the crusades was abroad in Europe and that that 
spirit was not one of toleration, and that bitter perse- 
cution was the lot of the Jews and Moslems. We need 
hardly add that right missionary incentive and effort 
having been wanting, the results were of no value to 
the Church. Reference is made to this effort of the 
Spanish Church and its methods not because either 
efforts or methods were really missionary, but because 
of the beneficial results to the Church itself, not only in 
Spain, but even more widely. 

15. Service in the Western World. 

We come now to a period when exploration and mis- 
sionary effort went hand in hand — the period of the 

63 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

discovery of the lands and peoples of the great Western 
World. All may not be ready to give the credit to 
Columbus of being a missionary in any sense, but it 
must be admitted that he and the Spanish discoverers 
of that age placed special value on the discoveries of 
new lands in view of the fact that new peoples would 
thus be made accessible to the Christian faith. The 
reports of Columbus to the sovereigns who had sent 
him show how large a place this object had in his 
thought. He was also pleased to sign himself "Christo 
ferens," the literal meaning of his first name. 

But admitting the nominal character of his claim to 
be a missionary, we find that a man was soon raised up 
who has been accounted not only a missionary, indeed, 
First Mis- but one °^ tne most picturesque and most 
sionary Work brilliant characters in all missionary history. 
This man was Bartholomew de las Casas, 
who appeared at the very dawn of the sixteenth century. 
The field of his labor was Cuba, and he came to be 
called "the apostle of the West Indies." Humane and 
conscientious, Las Casas gave up the aboriginal slaves 
he had inherited with certain lands. A true missionary 
in purpose and in spirit, he labored diligently to make 
Christ known to the people according to the best light 
of his day. It is to be regretted that his work could 
not have been supplemented and followed up by a host 
of men of like spirit. Missionary work in Brazil dates 
Work from 1549. The first missionary band num- 

m Brazil. bered six, with Manuel de Nobrega at the 
head. Between 1549 and 1625 it is claimed that more 
than two hundred Jesuits took part in missionary work 
in Brazil, and that large numbers of that and of other 
orders labored there later. Their work was rewarded by 
large accessions to their faith. A hundred years after 

63 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

their expulsion from the country, it is claimed that there 
were eight hundred thousand Christian aborigines there. 

Turning to other parts of South America, and with- 
out taking up each for separate treatment, we record, 
as suggestive of the wide-extended effort of that age, 
Extent of that the Spanish Jesuit order alone supplied 
Missionary five thousand missionaries for the work. This 
number was increased by some of other soci- 
eties and lands. Each country had the benefit of some 
zealous missionaries, among whom one came to be 
accounted as its apostle. Thus Manuel de Ortega has 
been called the apostle of Paraguay and Francis de 
Solani of Peru. Judged by Roman Catholic standards 
of evangelization, a great work was done in Christian- 
izing the aborigines of South America, and, judged by 
the highest standards, great credit must be given for 
devotion to their task and zeal in the doing of it. In 
many cases the work was of such a nature that had 
later generations builded on those foundations with the 
same zeal and Christian fidelity, the religious history of 
that south land would present a far different picture 
from that it now presents. 

As might be expected from the effort put forth for 
South America, Central America and Mexico became 
scenes of missionary activity. In both countries notable 
Central results were gained. In Mexico, Franciscans, 

America and Dominicans, and Augustinians shared in the 
work. It was claimed that the Franciscans 
alone had baptized more than one million Mexican 
Indians before 1550, that five hundred heathen temples 
had been abandoned, and twenty thousand idols de- 
stroyed. 

From Mexico the faith was spread to distant places. 
It was from here that the Ladrone and Philippine Islands 

64 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

were Christianized. A great missionary fund, too, was 
established, the income from which was used for mis- 
sionary work. 

Going farther north, we find that Spanish priests 
had often visited Lower and Upper California before 
the formal opening of missionary work near the close of 
Wider the seventeenth century, and that as early as 

Extension. the middle of the sixteenth century mission- 
aries were sent to Florida; but the first attempts were 
not successful. A little later more successful efforts 
were made, and early in the seventeenth century many 
Christian communities were planted among the Cher- 
okees and the Apalaches. This work extended into 
Western Florida and Georgia. With varying success, 
too, work was opened and carried on in New Mexico 
and Texas. With so many defects as characterized the 
missionary work of that period, it is hard to give as 
much credit as is probably due to those who labored. 
It must even be a matter of deep regret that the zeal 
of the laborers was not directed more wisely, that ideals 
embracing lofty moral principles were not kept to the 
fore, and that Christ was not lifted up in very deed. 
Because such was not the case, these fields have failed 
to bear the fruitage worthy of a Christian civilization, 
and are to-day filled with ignorance and immorality. 

We must now turn another leaf in history and trace 

the outlines of the work still farther north — that of 

French missionaries in North America. This chapter is 

KT . one of peculiar interest because the records 

Northern 

North are more complete and the fields themselves 

American anc j their peoples more fully known. The 
Missionaries. 

fact that the records are so complete testifies 

to an outstanding fact, namely, that the leaders of the 

missionary movements in the wilds of Canada and in 

e 6£ 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the northern sections of the United States were men, 
and sometimes women too, well educated and refined. 
From the Maritime Provinces of Canada, where the 
work was begun, the zealous Jesuits and other Roman 
Catholic workers extended their work to the Provinces 
of Quebec and Ontario, and through wide sections of 
these provinces. By their names, too, they can be fol- 
lowed through the northern parts of the United States 
and down through Illinois and even into Louisiana. 
Places around which the work centered, and the names 
of which suggest whole volumes of history filled with 
toil and privation, sacrifice and persecution, self-denial 
and undaunted courage, are: Port Royal, Mt. Desert 
Island, Cape Breton Island, Norridgewock, Quebec, 
Montreal, and Three Rivers, Lake of the Two Moun- 
tains, La Pointe, Lake Simcoe, etc. Only a few of the 
names connected with this movement can be men- 
tioned: Jesse Fleche, Pierre Biard, Gabrial Druillettes, 
James and Sabastian Bigot, Sabastian Rules, Paul le 
Jeune, Le Noue, Jean du Quen, Jerome Lalemant, 
Jean de Brebeuf, Nicholas Viel, Isaac Jogues, and 
Jacques Marquette. There were women, too, of refine- 
ment who gave themselves to work in these hard fields. 
Among these, two that stand out most clearly are 
Madame de la Peltrie and Marie de lTncarnation. No 
darker chapter in persecution had ever been enacted 
than here, but that subject must be reserved for treat- 
ment elsewhere. These missions date from 1610, and 
the greatest activity was within a century and a quarter 
of their organization. A notable feature is the part 
taken by the nobility of France, by the government, 
by traders, and by colonists. As one reads the history 
from the standpoint of to-day's advancement, he must 
be impressed with the narrow-mindedness of the mis- 

60 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

sionaries and their sincerity of purpose and absolute 
devotion to duty as they saw it. 

In a review of these missions of the Western World, 
one finds it impossible to determine just how much was 
added to the sum total of accomplishment in the world's 
evangelization. That something was added, we can not 
doubt. Of one fact we may rest assured, that the aggre- 
gate of service rendered by the thousands and tens of 
thousands of men and women who gave themselves, 
wholly or in part, to this work was incalculably great. 
The dangers and hardships of travel and life among 
savage barbarians in other fields were here duplicated, 
and no greater devotion was evinced by the hardy 
Celtic missionaries from Iona or by the Danes than that 
displayed by Spanish and French missionaries in these 
fields. 

One other field must be noticed before we go on to 
the peculiarly modern period of the great world move- 
ment, namely, that cultivated by the English. The 

records are more scanty in this case than in 
Effort in the that just considered, but there are outstand- 
Western m g f ac ts that may be noted and prominent 

names, the mention of which throw into clear 
relief much of the history. The original charters given 
to the early Colonists put in the front ground of objects 
sought, the Christianizing of the people. The Virginia 
charter of 1629 makes this object clear, and all the others 
are in fine with that in this respect. The plans of Brad- 
ford and Winthrop for colonization gave this thought 
prominence. But our interest is in what was really done 
in this direction. Were the Pilgrim fathers, whose an- 
nounced program was the conversion of the Indians, as 
earnest and successful in the work as were the French 
and Spanish whose labors we have noticed? The first 

67 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

report of what had been done was given under the 
caption, "New England's First Fruits," which appeared 
in 1634. This report mentions a few persons as having 
shown some inclination to become Christians. We 
must remember, however, that their standard was far 
above that of the Spaniards and French, and that with 
them mere baptism and assent to a creed was not 
enough. In addition, we must remember that none 
among them were set apart exclusively for that work. 
The names of Roger Williams, Henry Duston, John 
Eliot, and Joannes Megapolinses are the first that can 
be recorded as missionaries to the Indians. The first- 
named spent forty years in that work and was the first 
missionary among them. Henry Duston, the first 
President of Harvard College, was the second. The 
work of Eliot among the Indians and his effort in their 
behalf led to the organization of a missionary society 
in England, called "The Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in New England." This was in 1649, or one 
hundred and forty-eight years before the "English 
Baptist Society" was organized, under the influence of 
William Carey. It was the first English missionary 
society, but the organization of the Jesuits had been at 
work for one hundred and fifteen years, while the 
English "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts" was organized sixty-two years later. 

Eliot's success may be partially judged by the fact 
that, after thirty-eight years' labor, he had eleven hun- 
dred Christian Indians under his care. The entire 
number in New England, as estimated at the dawn of 
the eighteenth century, was seven thousand. This work 
went on down through the eighteenth century and 
further. Among earlier laborers we may mention John 
Sergeant and his son, John Sergeant, Jr., Jonathan 

es 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

Edwards, Gideon Hawley, John Mason, Jonathan 
Barber, Samson Occom, Samuel Kirkland, and Henry 
Barclay. 

"The Society for Propagation of the Gospel" entered 
this field in 1727, and the Moravians in 1740. In the 
work of the latter the names of Christian Henry Rausch, 
Peter Boehler, Spangenberg, Heckewelder, and David 
Zeisberger must be mentioned. The Scottish "Society 
for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge" also took 
part in the work. The best known representative of 
this society was David Brainerd. He began his work 
at twenty-five years of age, and, though he lived to 
labor only four years, evinced such a spirit that Carey's 
heart was fired with missionary zeal, and reading the 
record of his life gave Henry Martyn to the great work 
of foreign missions. Among the names of those who 
took deep interest in this work we find that of Count 
Zinzendorf, who personally visited the Moravian mis- 
sions and himself helped in the work for more than a 
year. The Friends, too, took an interest in the Indians, 
and by example, as well as by instruction, helped on the 
good cause. 

While great service had been given to the world 
movement in the British Isles, in Europe and Africa, 
and even Asia, and then in the frozen North — in Ice- 
Extent land, Greenland, and Labrador — that given 
and Character to the Western World swelled the sum total 
of the investment in service by the work of 
thousands of men and not a few women through a 
period of two hundred years before the dawn of the 
eighteenth century. The service rendered here was, like 
all service, inexpressible in figures. The perils, hard- 
ships, and privations may be classed with those en- 
dured in other lands where the evangelization of savage 

69 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and barbarous peoples was sought. The history of the 
exploration of the Western World is a thrilling record of 
adventure and hardship not surpassed in human his- 
tory. Who would attempt to weigh such service or to 
make up in figures the sum total? If the years of 
service could be made up, the figures would doubtless 
be surprising; but volumes would be required to give 
any adequate idea of what had been the real investment 
in service. Experiences of danger, hardship, and priva- 
tion form a background of their service that will prop- 
erly set it forth. May the mantle of their devotion fall 
upon the Church to-day as it faces the world problem! 
New factors may and do enter into the solution of the 
problem to-day, but the problem itself remains the 
same — to evangelize all nations and tribes and peoples 
and tongues. 

16. Protestantism to the Fore in Service. 

This period may be dated from the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. At the very beginning we find 
certain forces developed and a certain vision of world- 
conquest already created. The Moravians, under Count 
Zinzendorf, had as early as 1723 organized a missionary 
society. Nine years, however, passed before a mission 
was established, and even then the Hernhut colony 
numbered less than four hundred. The West Indies 
was their first mission field, and Leonhard Dober and 
David Nitschman their first missionaries. 
Earliest ^ e nave referred to certain societies that 

Missionary dated their organization to a date earlier than 
the eighteenth century. At the very dawn 
of that century three new societies were organized, 
namely: "The Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts," 1701; a Scottish "Society for 

70 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

Promotion of Christian Knowledge," 1708; and a 
Norwegian "Missionary Society," 1714. These societies 
are the result of forces already developed, and reveal 
the fact that the Church was even then getting a vision 
of world-wide need and of responsibility for world-wide 
evangelization. While that vision was of the few only, 
and was not characterized by the clearness and breadth 
needed, it did serve for the initial step in the great 
work. Whence came the vision and the conviction that 
explain the beginnings of the world movement that has 
Influence of been going on for the past two hundred years? 
the Lutheran The great Lutheran Reformation must be 
e orma on. coim £ e( j as j n a sense the essential cause, and 
yet Luther counted the Great Commission as of apos- 
tolic application only; and Melanchthon and Zwingli had 
no clearer vision. John Calvin, too, failed to grasp the 
thought of world-conquest. One man only stands out 
at that period with broader vision — Adrianus Saravia, 
a Dutchman and pastor of a Reformed Church in Ant- 
werp and later in Brussels. And yet one can not con- 
ceive of the great missionary movement of the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries without the Reformation. The 
Reformation spirit was in essential particulars the mis- 
sionary spirit. Dormant it may have been, but with 
the adoption of the principles that the Word of God 
must be in the hands of the peoples in their own tongues, 
that there is salvation only through faith in Christ, and 
that each person has direct access through Christ to 
God the Father — with these principles adopted, and 
practically applied, the spirit of world-wide conquest 
Influence could not long lie dormant. The awakening 
of Pietism, came, and the Pietist movement in Germany 
must be credited with being the immediate cause. With 
the full development of Pietism came the conviction and 

71 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

vision needed for launching the idea of a world-wide 
missionary movement. 

We have already seen how widespread had been the 
work of the Church in some of its organic forms during 
the first seventeen centuries. We have also noted the 
New methods employed and the character of the 

Conditions, results gained, and have seen that the former 
were ofttimes carnal and that the latter failed to show 
the depth of spirituality that alone would make them 
enduring. As the result, the world problem at the 
opening of the eighteenth century had a feature un- 
known to that of apostolic or even post-apostolic days, 
namely, a well-nigh world-wide Christianity that was 
such in name only. Nor had this nominal Christianity 
taken the place of Pagan faiths except those of limited 
extent and strength, as in Northern Europe and the 
British Isles. It had, however, changed their bounds 
in many places, but at the same time had witnessed 
their numerical increase and gradually widening extent. 
One new feature had been added — the rise of Moham- 
medanism — a feature of most serious importance. 

It is impossible to reach even approximate correct- 
ness in estimating the numerical strength of the various 
faiths at the opening of the eighteenth century. We 
Extent of must content ourselves with noting their ldca- 
Non-Christian tion and territorial extent. Mohammedanism 
was the faith of Arabia, Persia, Syria, North- 
ern Africa, and of the region to the west of the Red Sea, 
of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Bokhara, and Turkey. It 
was well intrenched, too, in India, China, Japan, and 
Korea, and in the islands of the Malay Archipelago. 
Hinduism occupied the broad extent of the Indian Em- 
pire. Buddhism had long since broken the bounds of 
the land of its birth, India, and had assumed a place of 

72 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

large influence in Burma, Ceylon, China, Japan, and 
Korea. Confucianism and Taoism were limited to 
China, their birthplace, and Japan and Korea. Shinto 
was the faith of the people of Japan. Animism and 
Fetichism held sway over the African peoples and those 
of the South Sea Islands, and had a place in India, 
China, Japan, Korea, side by side with the more highly 
organized and philosophic faiths that had grown up. 
Our study has shown us where Christianity was estab- 
lished; but evangelical Christianity was young, and 
with its propaganda we must now concern ourselves. 
The sad feature of the Christian movement appears in 
the decline of the spiritual element in the Church that 
had represented the Christian faith, and the growth of 
forms and unholy claims until Christ was dishonored and 
the way of salvation lost to view. From now on our 
study has to do with evangelical Christianity. The 
story of its development in Europe, the British Isles, 
Canada, and the United States would be in line with 
our subject, but we must confine ourselves to its out- 
reaching to the regions beyond, letting the work there 
index the strength of the Church that waged the cam- 
paign. 

The Protestant Church was largely in a formative 
state at the dawn of the eighteenth century. Its area 
was narrow compared with the extent of many non- 
Eighteenth Christian faiths, and its numerical strength 
Century Prot- seemingly insignificant. Such were the world 
es an ism. conditions that the Protestant Church faced 
at the dawn of the eighteenth century. It is our purpose 
now to trace in the barest outlines that will serve our 
general plan the investment of the Church in the way of 
service during the two succeeding centuries. 

Various considerations contributed to smallness in 
73 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

the number of the agencies employed, weakness in the 
effort put forth under those agencies, and meagerness 
Small in results for the first of these two centuries. 

Results. rp^g mos t important of these were the low 

ebb of spiritual life, the lack of a comprehensive grasp 
of the real mission and responsibility of the Church, 
and also a lack of leaders who had the needed vision 
and the power to make others grasp it. In a few places 
the missionary fire had been kindled to some degree, 
and there had resulted the organized agencies we have 
mentioned. For a century the missionary idea had 
occasionally come to the front, but had not made any 
widespread or deep impression. 

One of the very earliest of the leaders in the great 
work of seeking to create a missionary spirit was a man 
of noble birth, who called the Lutheran Church to the 
Early great missionary task, Baron Justinian Von 

Leaders. Weltz. He grasped the two ideas that should 
actuate every Christian — the uplift of Christian life and 
making the gospel known to non-Christian peoples. He 
talked, wrote treatises on the subject, and appealed for 
the organization of a society to accomplish the great 
purpose. 

Baron Von Leibnitz appeared at the end of the sev- 
enteenth century as a zealous advocate of foreign mis- 
sions. Oliver Cromwell went so far as to propose and 
elaborate a missionary scheme embodying an organiza- 
tion to be known as " Congregatio de Propaganda Fide." 
The names of King Frederick IV of Denmark and the 
court preacher Llitkens must be mentioned in this con- 
nection, but to the king himself should probably be 
given credit for the missionary ideas advanced, while 
Liitkens helped to make them effective. Aug. Herm. 

74 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

Francke, one of the chief leaders in the Pietist move- 
ment, deserves mention here. 

His influence in training workers and in inspiring 
the missionary spirit was of great value, but was supple- 
mented by a more direct touch on the missionaries sent 
Moravian forth and on their work by his deep interest 
Brethren. anc j valued ad vice. The great Moravian 
leader, Count Zinzendorf, can not be passed by in such 
a connection as this, for he was one of the evidently 
divinely appointed human instruments for launching the 
great missionary movement of modern times. With him 
were associated many of like spirit and aim, among 
whom Nicolaus Ludwig may have special mention. 
In Count Zinzendorf's great interest in missions we may 
see, perhaps, one fruit of Francke's influence, for he 
came under that influence as a boy in Francke's insti- 
tutions in Halle. The missionary spirit of Zinzendorf 
and the Moravian Brethren must be recognized in a 
wider sphere than their direct missionary efforts would 
seem to allow, for their spiritual influence touched and 
mightily affected many who were not of them and never 
became associated with them. Among such was John 
Wesley, whose devout mind and thirsty heart never 
found perfect peace and spiritual refreshing until he 
had drunk from the spiritual springs to which they 
guided him. 

Such is a very brief outline of the influences at work 
during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, and 
such the first beginnings of the missionary stream that 
was to gain in depth and breadth and to sweep on dur- 
ing that century and become the well-nigh world-wide 
tide of life and power of the nineteenth century. 

15 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

17. Protestant Fields of Labor, and Work Accomplished. 

But what was accomplished during the eighteenth 
century, where were the fields of labor, and who the la- 
borers? The work of the missionary societies already 
launched must be reviewed here. These societies and the 
humble beginnings of their work in a few places in the 
Western World represent the organized assets of Prot- 
estantism. It may be interesting to note here that the 
first Protestant missionary organization was not of the 
Church, but of the State. It was established by the 
Long Parliament, and the name given was, "The Cor- 
poration for the Propagation of the Gospel in New Eng- 
land." 

The eighteenth century has to its credit work done 
by the missionary societies mentioned above in America 
and the West Indies — work that has already been 
described — and that of the Danish-Halle Mission in 
India, in the South, and also in Bengal, in Lapland, 
and in Greenland. Rationalism led to the desertion of 
the East Indian Missionary Society at Halle, but did 
not quench the spiritual life at Hernhut. There were 
two home centers of missionary effort in Germany in 
the eighteenth century — Halle and Hernhut. 

The chief work of the first Scottish society was done 
among the North American Indians. In England there 
was little encouragement regarding missions in the 
Work eighteenth century. The "Society for the 

of Various Propagation of the Gospel," established in 
Societies. 1701j began ^^ an income of $7,675, and 

advanced in ninety years to only $13,040. The fields 
of its labors were the Indians and the Negroes of Amer- 
ica. The "Society for the Promotion of Christian 
Knowledge" accomplished more, but joined forces in 

76 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

the work with the Danish-Halle Mission and took over 
some of the missionaries of that society. Schwartz was 
among these, and the action taken resulted in the trans- 
ference of some of the field of that society to the 
Society for Propagating the Gospel. With Rational- 
istic thought to the front in Germany and vital religion 
generally satirized in England, where the so-called 
"Free-thought" writings were widely circulated, these 
countries could not be expected to show much zeal in 
the work of foreign missions. In fact, until near the 
close of the eighteenth century, we must record de- 
cline for that period in the spirit that makes for world- 
conquest. 

The change for the better came when William Carey, 
a journeyman shoemaker, converted and ordained to 
the ministry, got a vision of world-conquest for Christ 
as the great work of the Church that put him in the 
forefront of the advocates of that cause. Even such 
men as Andrew Fuller and Doctor Rylands, who advo- 
cated the work of foreign missions, did not recognize 
the urgency of immediate action as did Carey. His 
later career in India through a long life of marvelous 
service bears out the conviction of many at that early 
day expressed by Doctor Rylands, "I believe God Him- 
self infused into the mind of Carey that solicitude for 
the salvation of the heathen which can not be fairly 
traced to any other source." 

After tracing the course of the missionary move- 
ment during the eighteenth century and noting the 
apathy towards that cause and the spiritual deadness 
from which it sprung, we are hardly prepared for the 
really remarkable change that came at the close of that 
century and the beginning of the nineteenth. As proof 
of this, we note the rise in rapid succession of missionary 

77 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

societies and the fact that they quickly got into line 
with the work and gained in favor with the people. 
(See Appendix II for list of missionary societies and the 
dates of their organization.) 

The rapidity with which Bible societies and mission 
boards were organized after the awakening began near 
the close of the eighteenth century and before the middle 
of the nineteenth, suggests a wonderful arousing of 
Protestantism to the world task. For it must be noted 
that these societies embraced all sections of the Prot- 
estant world. A view of the agencies and agents em- 
ployed and a hasty glance at the results gained must 
satisfy us here. 

We first turn to Asia, the birthplace of all great 
religions; the home of the five greatest moral and re- 
ligious teachers of the world— Moses, Buddha, Con- 
fucius, Jesus, and Mohammed; Asia, the home of three- 
fourths of the human race and birthplace of great 
philosophers; Asia, with a history ancient and wonder- 
ful, but with its latest generations living on the plane 
their ancient ancestors lived, paralyzed by its very 
greatness, sleeping while other nations arose and began 
a triumphant march across the centuries; Asia, where, 
if anywhere, Satan's seat has been established, where 
womanhood has been denied the right to all-round 
physical development, to God's free sunshine and fresh 
air, to education and moral and spiritual uplift, to 
respect, sympathy, and love; Asia, the hot-house where 
accursed superstitions have been generated and pushed 
on to rapid growth by ignorance, until impurity, inhu- 
manity, and abominable atrocities have marked the 
religious life and practice. And so in China women have 
hobbled on stumps of feet and cast their girl babies out 
to die, while in India they have lived lives of close con- 

78 



1 
INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

finement, been burned alive on the funeral pyres of 
their dead husbands, and have cast their baby girls to 
the crocodiles. And man — what about man? Enough 
to say that he has been the one who has thus degraded 
womanhood and that he has suffered consequent loss in 
the degeneracy of his moral and spiritual power. 

What has been done in these and other lands of 
Asia since the Church of Jesus Christ at the dawn of the 
nineteenth century got a vision of His plan and of 
responsibility for carrying out that plan in all the world? 
What has been done? Wonders have been wrought in 
the name of Christ. In India the small beginnings made 
by the zealous Danes in 1706 have been supplemented 
by the work of the British, Continental, American, 
Canadian, Scandinavian, and indigenous societies until 
120 mission boards are in the field, represented by 4,635 
missionaries, 35,354 ordained and unordained preachers, 
and a Christian community numbering 1,471,727. From 
1792, when Carey put his hand to the great task, the 
effort to evangelize India has been definite and practical. 
The real results can only be estimated, and those esti- 
mates can not be put into figures. Through Sunday and 
day schools of all grades from the village school to the 
college, through Bible and tract distribution in every 
part of the empire, through medical work, zenana visi- 
tation, and social intercourse, through the influence of 
men and women whose lives present new standards of 
living — through such means as these India has felt the 
influence of Christian missions to a degree not indexed 
fully by the large array of figures that can be brought. 
The peculiar problem of this field and the obstacles it 
presents to the spread of the gospel must be treated 
later. 

And what about China, the giant of Asia? Why has 
79 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

China begun to wake up after centuries of sleep? Why 
have changes come in a few brief years for which many 
r , . decades would have been supposed to be 

necessary? Since 1807 Christianity has been 
gradually leavening the great lump of Chinese thought, 
life, and government. Many of the missionary so- 
cieties have heard the call of China's need, until 92 
of them are directing their effort to her uplift. The 
foreign missionary, a strange figure one hundred years 
ago, has become well known, and to the number of 
4,197 these men and women preach salvation through 
faith in Jesus. Their work is supplemented by an 
army of 12,108 workers raised up in China, and the 
Church gathered numbers 470,184. The usual mis- 
sionary agencies have been employed until China is 
widely leavened with the gospel. The field itself and 
the religious conditions there must be considered 
later. 

The rapid coming to the front of Japan this present 
generation has been a surprise to all. To explain the 
opening up and the remarkable advance of this island 
empire is exceedingly difficult if the power 
which has made Western nations great be 
counted out. Comparatively small in territorial extent, 
though Japan be, 58 missionary societies have felt the 
call to labor there, and since 1859 have been molding the 
thought and life through their missionaries and native 
representatives, the former now numbering 1,029 and 
the latter 2,138. In a half century a Church has been 
built up that numbers 97,117. As in all mission fields, 
one must count the figures given as a shadowy index, 
at the best, of actual results achieved. 

Korea presents another of the surprises of recent 
years. Korea, the Hermit Nation of a quarter century 

80 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

back, has come to the front so rapidly that we marvel 
and look for the nature of the leaven that has so per- 
meated life and thought that such radical 
transformations have been brought about. 
Our space will not allow any lengthy statement of the 
case, but we note that one factor is, without question, 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. This work covers little more 
than a quarter of a century, but 18 mission boards have 
begun work, and now report a missionary force of 307, 
with Korean preachers to the number of 1,931 and a 
Christian community of 178,686, while there is a de- 
cided movement Christward. 

In Siam and French and Indo-China work has been 
carried on since 1833; in British Malaysia since 1813; 
and in the Dutch East Indies since 1814. A considerable 
Other number of mission boards are carrying on the 

Fields. work in these lands. The missionary force 

now aggregates 700, the native force 3,655, and the 
Christian community 549,518. 

Few fields have offered such encouragement to the 
Church in its world movement, from the first inaugura- 
tion of the work, as the Philippine Islands. Protestant- 
Philippine ism was late in entering this island field. The 
Islands. time was most opportune, however, and since 

1899 these islands have been to the front in the thought 
and effort of the American Churches. Ten mission 
boards within a decade rallied to the work, and in a 
dozen years from the start 167 missionaries and 880 
native preachers were ministering to a Christian com- 
munity numbering 75,955, and preaching the gospel 
everywhere. 

We turn from these islands to the isle of spicy breezes 
just off the southern point of India. What about Cey- 
lon? This island has not been neglected, for it has had 
6 81 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

attention since 1814, and 21 societies now share in 

the work. The missionary force numbers 263 and 

r . the native 2,789. That the effort put forth 

Ceylon. . . * 

has not been in vain is evidenced by the 

Christian community of 50,196 and by the various 

agencies now at work along many lines. 

With this hasty glance at the great countries of 
Eastern and Southern Asia, and the island world ad- 
jacent, we pass to the lands of the Northwest and look 
for signs of Christian conquests there. If these lands 
do not show as great apparent results as some others, 
we must not be surprised, for our later study will reveal 
conditions of peculiar difficulty. 

The Turkish Empire was the first entered of these 
lands of Northwestern Asia. The work dates back to 
1807. Again and again during the century of Christian 
Turkish missionary activity this empire has been be- 

Empire. f ore ^he bar of the Christian world and been 

condemned for gross misrule and for atrocities in the 
treatment of its Christian subjects that have cast a 
lurid light on its history. Here, however, 18 missionary 
societies have been at work, and a band of 354 mis- 
sionaries and 1,446 native preachers now seek to estab- 
lish the Kingdom of Him who rules in righteousness. We 
may well rejoice that in this empire there is such a force 
at work with multiplied agencies already employed, and 
that a Church of 58,616 members has been established. 

As a land having a place in both the history and 
prophecy of the Bible, Persia has very special interest. 
The work was begun comparatively early, dating from 
1815. Eight societies are at work, through 
119 missionaries and 305 native preachers, 
along the lines usual to Christian activity. The Chris- 
tian community seems small, only 10,446, but light will 

82 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

be thrown on the problem of the evangelization of this 
land when we come to consider the subject of the world- 
field. We need to be careful lest we base our judgment 
of work in certain fields on insufficient data and reach an 
incorrect conclusion. We may well rejoice that the Church 
has the leaven of the gospel in so large measure in Persia, 
and pray that it may speedily permeate the whole land. 

Syria and Palestine must now be considered. That 
the Protestant Church should have left the land where 
Christ was born and whence the gospel went out into 
Syria and all the world until so late a date as 1851 
Palestine. seems very strange. But, if slow in beginning 
the task, credit must be given for marked attention 
during the past sixty years. In that time 27 societies 
have begun work and have built up a missionary force 
of 397 and a native ministry numbering 758. The 
numerical strength of the Church must, under all the 
circumstances, be considered encouraging, namely, 
18,374. That the Word of God is beginning to have 
free course in the land of His birth, and that the places 
made sacred by the presence of our Lord are now the 
scene of victory in His name — these facts are cause for 
devout thanksgiving. 

The Dark Continent must now have a place in our 
study. We here deal only with the features that index 
service by the Church for Africa's redemption. This 
. . . land will ever have a very peculiar interest to 

the Church of Christ. Its connection with 
Bible history and with the early movement of Christian- 
ity, as well as its great darkness, gives it an appeal of 
more than ordinary force to the Church. For pur- 
poses of detailed study, Africa must be divided into 
many fields designated by the points of the compass. 
We can not give to each a separate treatment. 

83 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

The earliest work dates back to 1736. It was begun 
in South Africa, where now 52 missionary societies are 
at work. South Central and Western Africa were opened 
up as mission fields in 1810 and 1811 respectively. Work 
was begun in Northwest Africa in 1824, in Southwest 
Africa 1842, in East Africa 1844, and in Northeast 
Africa 1872. The missionary force the Church has put 
into the field now numbers 4,273, and a native force of 
20,336 has been raised up. The Christian community is 
1,746,072. South Africa is the great field, judged by the 
figures that mark its personal strength, namely, 1,589 
missionaries and 8,680 native preachers; but it must 
be noted that the work is about seventy-five years older 
than that in any other section. Northwest Africa has 
proved the least fruitful field of the Dark Continent, 
and the returns after about eighty-seven years' work 
are very meager. The special attention of the Church 
is now being directed to its strategic importance, and 
we may hope for a brighter day for this field. 

While in this section of the world-field, we note that 
Madagascar and Mauritius were occupied by the Church 
in 1820, and now have 269 missionaries and 6,138 native 
workers. A Christian community of 286,702 shows how 
strongly the Church has intrenched itself in that region. 

The Cape Verde and Madeira Islands did not become 
Island the scene of missionary activity until 1898, 

Fields. j-k e foundations have scarcely been laid as yet. 

The next field of Protestant missionary work we 
wish to consider is South America. The fact that this 
country has been under the Roman Catholic faith from 
South the days of Spanish exploration and discovery 

America. m the early part of the sixteenth century, thus 
being a nominally Christian land, may account for the 
fact that fewer missionary societies have chosen to 

84 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

labor there than in the great lands called Pagan. The 
fact, too, that in most sections work was not opened 
until well on in the nineteenth century may perhaps be 
accounted for in the same way. After the opening of 
work in Dutch Guiana in 1738, no field was opened until 
1807, when the Argentine Republic became a Protestant 
mission field. Peru and Brazil came next, in 1812 and 
1817 respectively; and later Uruguay, 1841; Chile, 
1873; Columbia, 1856; British Guiana, 1875; Bolivia, 
1877; Paraguay, 1888; Venezuela, 1890; Ecuador, 1895. 
Thus South America has become a great mission field, 
every part of which is being brought under the influence 
of Christian truth. It must be counted no less the duty 
of the Church to help those who, though they bear 
Christ's name, know not His power than to go to those 
who dwell in the thickest darkness. And so the Church 
got a vision of need in South America that made duty 
clear, and work was opened and has been developed — 
slowly, it is true — until 881 missionaries make up the 
foreign force in that great aggregation of States, while 
the home force numbers 1,795 and the South American 
Church, 270,772. 

In close connection with the above, both geograph- 
ically and in religious condition and need, are Cen- 
Central ^ ra ^ America and Panama, where work was 

America opened in 1811 and which have attracted 

an anama. ^ e attention of 16 societies and have a pres- 



ent missionary force of 131 and native force of 
while a Church numbering 33,687 holds great promise 
for the future. 
.. . Mexico comes next in order from close proxi- 

Mexico. . ... . . 

mity and similarity of conditions. Mexico's 
appeal of need was not heard by the Church until 1870, 
since which time 19 societies have planted missions 

85 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

there and sent in missionaries until 294 are now at work, 
while the Mexican re-enforcement numbers 529 and a 
Christian community of 92,156 stands to the credit of 
the effort of forty years. 

Again we must turn to the isles of the sea and con- 
sider the work done on them in this missionary period. 
In the earliest period work was begun in the Lesser 
Islands of Antilles by the Danes as far back as 1665, 
the Atlantic. an( j now ^4 societies are at work with a 
missionary force of 186 and a native force of 977, and 
the Christians in this group number 386,225. Jamaica 
was next opened, but nearly a century later — in 1754 — 
and 18 societies now carry on the work through 257 
missionaries and 852 native Christians. The Bahama 
Islands have a missionary history running back to 1800. 
Seven societies are now carrying on the work with 37 
missionaries, 266 native preachers, and a Christian 
Church numbering 41,476. Haiti and San Domingo 
come next in time, 1817, and the work is suggested by 
the fact of a working force of 17 missionaries and 139 
native preachers, working under 9 societies. The 
Hawaiian Islands have been the scene of Protestant 
missionary operations since 1823, but only three societies 
have entered that field to date. These societies have 
now 65 missionaries, 152 native preachers, and 22,000 
Christians. Cuba and Porto Rico were left to their 
original missionary conquerors, the Roman Catholics, 
until 1882 and 1898 respectively, but now 16 Protestant 
societies are at work in the former and 15 in the latter. 
Cuba has 142 missionaries and 137 native preachers, 
and Porto Rico 167 missionaries and 200 native preach- 
ers. The Christians number 36,850 in the former and 
30,732 in the latter. 

The United States and Canada can not be passed 
86 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

over in this review of service, for each of these countries 
has work among the Indians and Eskimos, and also 
United States among the Asiatic immigrants that have been 
and Canada, thronging to their Western shores. The work 
in the United States and Alaska goes back to 1814 
among the Indians and Eskimos, and the Christians 
among these classes now number 68,143. The work is 
carried on by 492 missionaries and 470 native preachers, 
under 28 societies. The Asiatic immigrants have had 
missionary work among them since 1852, and 12 societies 
have Christian communities that aggregate 4,252. The 
work is carried on by 100 missionaries and 104 native 
preachers. In Canada and Labrador the work among 
the Indians and Eskimos dates from 1822. Eleven 
societies are at work. They have built up a Church now 
numbering 44,218, and the regular force in this field 
numbers 338 missionaries and 281 native preachers. 
The work among the Asiatic immigrants has received 
the attention of 6 societies which now have 17 mission- 
aries and 15 native preachers in the field and report 424 
Christians. 

For Greenland we find only 1 society, represented by 

2 missionaries and 2 native preachers, but a Christian 

community of 11,800. Our world survey now takes us 

._ . . to Australasia. Work that comes under re- 

Australasia. . 

view here was opened in Australia in 1860. 

Nine societies, with 48 missionaries and 39 native 

preachers, are engaged in the work. The Christian 

community reported is only 1,480. The great Island 

World of this region received attention from early in 

the nineteenth century, work in Polynesia being opened 

in 1821. After 90 years of missionary history, this 

group has a Christian Church of 146,500 and 4,460 

native preachers. The foreign missionary force is 105, 

87 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and 5 societies share the labor and the victory. The 
next group to be opened up to the gospel was Melanesia, 
twenty years later. The work of 70 years has resulted 
in a Christian community 111,415 strong, with a native 
ministry numbering 3,070. The foreign missionary force 
is 280 strong, representing 16 missionary boards. Eleven 
years later, in 1852, Micronesia became a mission field 
of the Church. Three societies labor there to-day. The 
foreign missionaries now number 32, the native preach- 
ers 130, and the Christian community 17,760.* 

18. The Base for Future Operations. 

After such a hasty survey of the opening up of the 
world-field and the present strength of the Church in 
numbers and working force as we have been able to 
give, we need to stop and think for a few minutes what 
it means. Every continent and well-nigh every land 
has now its Christian community, its native and mis- 
sionary force, and more or less equipment in schools and 
literature for its work. The same holds true as regards 
the great island groups of the world. Not only has the 
movement touched these lands and islands of the sea, 
but it has also made a large beginning in the leavening 
process. The universality of the work is perhaps the first 
thought that strikes us. Of the missionary movement 
it may now be said, "Their line is gone out through all 
the earth." 

As we have noted such results as have been gained 
in establishing of a native Church and the raising up 
of the native ministry in each of these lands, we have 

* For a tabulated statement of the figures given above, see 
Appendix III. 

88 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

been impressed with the intensiveness of the work as well 
as its extensiveness. This thought would be much more 
definitely and forcibly impressed upon us could we stop 
and consider the agencies employed to-day for the 
building up of God's Kingdom, all of which have been 
set in operation during the period under review. 

But what shall we say of the investment made by 
the Church in service to accomplish such results as we 
have outlined? It is possible to read the history of such 
a world movement and think little of the greatness of 
the expenditure in service involved. We have the spec- 
tacle to-day of a world missionary force more than 
21,000 strong, to which must be added almost 105,000 
raised up in these mission lands, making about 126,000 
who are giving themselves to the task of world evangeli- 
zation under what is called foreign missionary work. 
What amount of service has been required to enter 
these lands, break down barriers, teach the people, 
translate the Scriptures, found Christian literatures, 
build institutions, and train up such a company of 
native workers? We have read of the wonderful service 
of Carey in India; but Carey was preceded by a few 
and followed by a host whose labors have been given 
without stint. And so in all lands. To give only the 
names of the most distinguished laborers in these world- 
fields would require more space than we can give. There 
is no way we can show the amount of work put into 
this movement, but we can, by such data as we have 
given in the preceding pages, get a suggestion that 
ought to impress us to the point of wonder at what has 
been done, admiration for the devotion displayed by 
not a few, and a conviction that, after so much has been 
expended, the Church ought not to allow one jot or 

89 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tittle of the results gained to be lost by lack of service 
to-day, or any door, opened by the service of the past, 
to remain unentered for lack of service to-day. 

To ascertain the investments in these foreign lands, 
the work of the more than twenty-one thousand who 
make up the present missionary force must of necessity 
be determined. To this must be added all that those 
have done who have gone before them, and in addition, 
that of the army of the native workers through the 
century. More than this, the work done in connection 
with all the mission boards and Bible societies in organ- 
izing them and pressing their claims among the Churches 
must be considered. And once again, addition must be 
made of all done in Christian lands to push the battle 
against the kingdom of darkness. These things mark 
great accomplishment, and such accomplishment indexes 
great investment in service. Our further study will, we 
trust, serve to further emphasize the fact that the in- 
vestment the Church has made through the centuries 
has been so great as to command new respect for its 
effort and its achievement, and to inspire to nobler 
service for the working out of its world-wide program. 

We must reluctantly turn away from this theme to 
consider other phases of the subject of investment in 
the work of the Kingdom. We have at least got- a 
glimpse of the labors into which we are privileged to 
enter. The labors into which we enter are those of men 
and women who have toiled in all the lands of earth 
and through all the centuries since Jesus wearied Himself 
with His journeys and labors along the paths and in the 
villages of Palestine while He tabernacled among men. 
Yes, and we are also permitted to enter into the labors 
of Jesus Himself, who not only led the way, but has 

90 



INVESTMENT IN SERVICE. 

been sharing in the work of His people everywhere and 
through all the centuries. The roll of laborers in the 
Lord's world-field has not yet been closed. His com- 
mand still holds to all who bear His name: "Go, work 
to-day in My vineyard." The investment in service 
has been great, but our day of labor brings to us its 
responsibility. We must add to the structure already 
reared by working with our might while it is called 
to-day. 



91 



CHAPTER II. 
INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 



Investment in Life Foretold: 

"They shall lay their hands on you and shall persecute you, deliver- 
ing you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, bringing you before 
kings and governors for My name's sake." — Luke 21: 12. 

"But you shall be delivered up even by parents and brethren, and 
kinsfolk and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to 
death."— Luke 21: 16. 



"The Son of man came ... to give His life a ransom for 
many." — Jesus Christ. 

"Under an Eastern sky, 
Amid a rabble cry, 
A Man went forth to die — 
For me. 

"Thorn-crowned His blessed head, 
Blood-stained His every tread, 
Cross-laden, on He sped — 

For me." — Bible Readers' Calendar. 

"Hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, 
leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps." — Apostle Peter. 

"None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto 
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the 
grace of God." — Apostle Paul. 

"Speak, history! Who are life's victors? Unroll thy 

long annals and say — 
Are they those whom the world calls the victors, who 

won the success of a day? 
The martyrs, or Nero? The Spartans who fell at 

Thermopylae's tryst, 
Or the Persians and Xerxes? His judges or Socrates? 

Pilate, or Christ?" 

"They never fail who die 
In a good cause : the block may soak their gore, 
Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls; 
But still their spirit walks abroad." 



CHAPTER II. 

Investment in Life. 

1. Jew and Pagan, Allies in Earliest Persecution. 

The foundations of the Church were not laid without 
sacrifice, nor has the work of world-conquest in the 
name of Christ advanced without opposition that has 
meant at times great loss of life. The hate that de- 
manded the death of Christ with cries of "Crucify Him!" 
"Crucify Him!" has followed His disciples through the 
ages. The death of Christ foreshadowed what would 
befall many of His disciples. Regarding that event we 
wish to merely call attention to the fact that He died 
at the hands of men when He was engaged in the great 
work of winning the world to allegiance to God. His 
death, as well as His life, must be counted as a part of 
the cost of evangelizing the world. The historic fact of 
His death on the cross at the hands of wicked men has 
as its complement the further fact, oft verified in the 
history of the Church, that the storm of hate that broke 
with such fury on Him did not pass by His disciples. 
The history of the Church for well-nigh three centuries 
was largely a record of bitter persecution, and the 
destruction of life was appalling. To that chapter in 
Church history we now turn, with the hope that the 
devotion to Christ and loyalty to His Kingdom there 
displayed may be an inspiration to Christian laborers 
to-day. 

As Pagan Roman joined with Jew in the crucifixion 
95 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

of Christ, so they shared in the bloody work of per- 
secuting His Church. It was not for long, however, 
that the Pagan needed any spur from the Jew, as in the 
case of Christ. 

2. Persecutions Under Roman Emperors. — 'General View. 

The persecutions under Pagan Rome that wasted the 
Church during apostolic and post-apostolic days have 
from the time of Augustine usually been counted as ten 
in number. Those who follow this plan of numbering 
the persecutions name them by the emperors under 
whom they occurred, whether they were local or general. 
The ten emperors were: Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus 
Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Maximius, Decius, Valerian, 
Aurelian, and Diocletian. Doctor E. De Pressense says 
there were only eight distinct ones, and omits from the 
above list the names of Domitian and Aurelian. Doctor 
Schaff, in his "History of the Christian Church," says 
that ten is too small a number for the provincial and 
local persecutions, and too great for the general ones. 
He counts only two as extending over the whole empire, 
so as to be worthy of the name imperial or general — 
namely, those under Decius and Diocletian. 

From the time that the persecution of Christ's fol- 
lowers unto the death began with the stoning of Stephen 
and the beheading of James, persecution, more or less 
bitter, was almost constantly waged against them until 
the time of Constantine. Since that time also there 
have been periods of most bitter persecution in many 
lands. To trace in detail these dark and bloody periods 
in the history of the Church is beyond our purpose. 
The barest outline of a few of the most important ones 
is all that is possible here. 

96 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 



3. Three Centuries of Persecution in the Roman Empire. 

The widespread Roman Empire furnished the scene 
for the great persecutions that for nearly three centuries 
harassed and wasted the Church of Christ. As already 
stated, the so-called imperial ones were but two in 
number; nevertheless provincial and local persecutions 
were common, and no section of the Church was safe at 
any time. The real causes of these, whatever the as- 
signed reasons may have been, are not hard to find. 
The Paganism of the day caused no man to blush for 
his sins by any elevated moral code, while Christianity, 
by its very nature, showed the corruption of the Grseco- 
Roman Paganism that lay at the foundation of the 
Roman State and permeated all its life. In fact, the 
Pagan religion was to such a degree the very warp and 
woof of the Roman State that to speak against its gods 
was counted as speaking against the State itself. To 
worship otherwise than as prescribed by the State was 
to be an enemy of the State. This was not the position 
taken at first, but was the logical outcome of underlying 
principles. This is the only satisfactory explanation of 
those empire-wide persecutions that marked the rule of 
Decius and Diocletian. 

In the persecution under Nero the Church at Rome 
alone suffered. This terrible event was wholly due to 
the capricious whim of the narrow-minded, heartless 
monster who disgraced the Roman purple and the name 
of humanity. The main features of the case appear in 
his burning the great city of Rome for his personal 
pleasure and then charging up the dastardly deed to the 
Christians, because they were hated, and inflicting 
upon them such terrible persecutions as his cruel nature 
prompted and his ingenuity could devise. One's blood 
7 97 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

runs cold as he reads what this monster of cruelty and 
iniquity inflicted upon innocent men and women and 
children. No dungeon was too dark and damp and 
chill, no form of death too terrible for those who bore 
the name of Christ. At his orders some met their 
death in noisome dungeons; some upon the cross; others 
were rubbed with pitch and used as torches to light up 
the royal gardens; while still others were clothed with 
the skins of wild beasts and torn in pieces by dogs. We 
may well be thankful that this attack on the Christians 
was confined to the city of Rome. But, while such was 
the case, the spirit that prompted it did not die with 
Nero. Hate, fed on the blood it had shed and the lives 
it had sacrificed on its altars of cruelty, grew and 
strengthened until in many places throughout the entire 
empire Christians were put to the torture or given over 
to death. 

Finally, in the reigns of Decius and Diocletian, the 
whole Roman Empire was the scene of bitter persecu- 
tions. Before such a state of things could be inaugurated 
method and plan had to take the place of haphazard 
opposition. What better plan could have been devised 
than that finally adopted — to declare by edict that the 
Christian faith was antagonistic to the State and must 
be considered and dealt with as illegal? When this was 
done in the reign of Decius, the battle was on against 
every Christian in the Roman Empire. The compara- 
tively small list of names that has come down to us 
from the great number of those who gave up their lives 
for Christ's sake is far too long for us to record here. 
Suffice it to say that men, women, and children shared a 
common fate. The old and feeble, the young and 
strong, master and slave, soldier and private citizen, 
those of noble birth and those from the ranks of the 

98 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

common peoples suffered alike at the hands of the 
enemies of Christ. 

4. Methods Employed in Persecuting the Christians. 

The forms that persecution took in torture and in 
the methods of death were as varied as the combined 
ingenuity of almost countless enemies could devise. 
Pity for human sufferings was seldom allowed any place, 
while free rein was given to heartless cruelty. The 
forms of torture and death were too numerous to men- 
tion in full. Among these we read that in Lyons the 
Christians were tortured by being made to sit in red- 
hot chairs; that they were sewn up in nets and thrown 
on the horns of wild bulls; that the bodies of those who 
died in prison before the day of execution arrived were 
thrown out to the dogs and were carefully guarded until 
eaten, that friends might not take them away for burial; 
that in Gaul, in addition to many other devices for 
torture, red-hot plates of brass were put on the tenderest 
parts of the body; that in Africa some were thrown to 
mad bulls, and, after being mangled by them, the 
executioner completed the death penalty. We read also 
of the condemned being tied to wild horses and dragged 
to death; of being dragged by the feet over sharp 
stones, then scourged with whips, and finally stoned to 
death; of being bound on the backs of camels and 
scourged before being burned to death; of three girls 
being given gall and vinegar to drink, then severely 
scourged, tormented on a gibbet, rubbed with lime, 
scorched on a gridiron, worried by wild beasts, and 
finally beheaded; of a man being tortured on the rack, 
worried by wild beasts, half-burnt, and then beheaded, 
and his headless body thrown into the river; of others 

99 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

being hung head downwards over slow fires and suffo- 
cated. 

The above are only a few out of a great number of 
the methods employed at that time to torture and kill 
those who admitted they were Christians, and are given 
here to serve as a suggestion of the terrible sufferings 
endured for Christ's sake. It has been already sug- 
gested that rank and position were no protection. In 
the imperial persecution under Decius, Fabian, Bishop 
of Rome, was beheaded and Alexander, Bishop of 
Jerusalem, was cast into prison, where he met his death 
by the rigor of his imprisonment. In all the persecutions 
the leaders of the Church were sought out, and from 
their ranks many were tortured and put to death. 
Decius erected a Pagan temple at Ephesus and com- 
manded all in that city to worship there. Seven of the 
imperial soldiers refused, and were imprisoned, but 
escaped and took refuge in a cave, where they met death 
by starvation, the entrance having been blocked up by 
the emperor's command. 

Additional touches were given to these persecutions 
by depriving the accused of all Christian fellowship, but 
encouraging the visits of heathen relatives and friends, 
oftentimes a loved father or mother, whose appeals 
would add poignancy to the heart-breaking grief already 
endured. 

5. Investment in Life Beyond Computation. 

The above brief and fragmentary outline of the 
events of those terrible days when the Christian Church 
was in the seven-times heated fires of persecution has 
been made as a mere suggestion of the investment in 
life that was made in those early times to plant the 
Church amid Pagan populations. It is noticeable that 

100 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

the Church historians, while giving much space to the 
general subject of persecution, do not even attempt to 
estimate the number of those who were put to death. 
In one case ten thousand is mentioned as the probable 
number in a local persecution, but as a rule the terrible 
events are recorded without numerical details. But 
the above is only one chapter out of many in the records 
of sacrifice of life for the gospel's sake. Later times 
have their quota to add, and to them we now turn 

6. Later Chapters in Persecution, 

As one reads the fearful record of the persecutions 
endured by the Church of the first three centuries, it 
seems as though this phase of the history of the Church 
must be complete. But Christ came "to send not 
peace, but a sword," and chapter after chapter has been 
added to those earlier chapters traced in blood. The 
Church has in every land where it has been planted its 
places that are forever hallowed by sacred blood. While 
the earlier persecutions consecrated many a spot in the 
lands then ruled by Pagan Rome, the whole history of 
persecution for those lands even was not written in that 
age. The wider sweep of the Church in later ages also 
stirred up opposition and hate in other lands and in the 
isles of the sea that added many to the long list of those 
who were faithful to Christ even unto death. 

We have already seen how the gospel spread beyond 
the bounds of the Roman Empire and the character of 
the peoples who came under its influence. We would 
not expect the gospel to have unhindered progress 
among such races as the Vandals, the Goths, the fiery 
Lombards, the vigorous Teutons and Anglo-Saxons, the 
hardy Northmen, and the cannibals of the South Sea 
Islands, and it did not. We can not mention all the 

101 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

lands where persecution was visited on those who 
brought the gospel message or who yielded themselves 
to its claims. A few illustrative cases only can be cited, 
and those in outline only. 

We have seen that Christianity was early planted in 
Persia and well know that it was driven out. But 
Persia did not drive out Christianity and bring in the 
darkness of Paganism and Mohammedanism without 
the shedding of Christian blood. The Pagan priests op- 
posed the Christians, and appealed to the emperor 
against them. Their appeal was heeded and an order 
issued to persecute them. A most bloody scene of cruelty 
and destruction of life ensued. A single incident will 
show the severity of the persecution. It is reported that 
one hundred and twenty-eight ecclesiastics were seized. 
The charge brought against them was that they had be- 
trayed the affairs of Persia to the Romans. But the 
insincerity of the charge is shown by the fact that they 
were offered release on condition of worshiping the sun. 
All refused to do this, and were beheaded. Another inci- 
dent will show the insecurity of the Christians. The 
empress having fallen sick, the sisters of Simeon, the 
Bishop of Selucia, were charged with being the cause. 
By the emperor's order they were sawn in quarters and 
the quarters raised on poles. 

In the fourth century a great persecution occurred 
under Shapur II, in which sixteen thousand clergy, 
monks and nuns, besides uncounted thousands of others, 
were put to death. 

In the fifth century the Vandals, when passing 
through Spain on their way to Africa, persecuted the 
Christians everywhere. They plundered churches, put 
their ministers to death, and inflicted terrible tortures. 
These tortures took the form of scourging, dragging by 

102 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

the feet after chariots, burning, and suffocating their 
victims by filling their mouths with mud. 

From the fifth to the eleventh century the wave of 
persecution swept over many lands, and the history is 
too voluminous to follow in detail. Upper Phrygia was 
the scene of severe persecution. The Saracens ravaged 
sections of the Eastern Empire and gained advantages 
in many places over the Christians, of whom many were 
put to death by the sword. Some of the more influential 
were carried off as prisoners and consigned to dungeons. 
Among these we read of two generals who stood stead- 
fast through seven years of imprisonment, refusing all 
offers of personal advancement and honor through the 
sacrifice of their faith, and then, still remaining firm, 
were put to death. 

England, too, was the scene of persecution even unto 
death in the days of the Saxon rule, when the Danes 
made their incursions. These Pagan Danes laid siege to 
Canterbury and, having taken it, murdered over seven 
thousand of the inhabitants, seized the archbishop, 
dragged him through the streets, scourged him most 
cruelly, and then put him to death. 

In the early days of Christianity in Denmark the 
Christians suffered most bitter persecution. It is claimed 
that the names of the martyrs would fill a volume. It 
is interesting to note that this land where the Church 
suffered so much furnished the first missionary to India 
and to Greenland. 

7. A New and Peculiar Phase of Persecution. 

We come now to a peculiar phase of this subject — 
that in which the Church founded by such suffering and 
sacrifice in the name of the Prince of Peace appears 
divided against itself, the one part persecuting the other 

103 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

with an Intensity of hate not surpassed by Pagan or 
Jew of an earlier age. We touch upon it here because 
it makes an important chapter in the world movement 
and an epoch in the development of a system that was 
to stand for righteousness and to seek to build in the 
world the Kingdom of God. It is hard to realize that 
men of any age or faith or class should so lack in all 
humane feeling as to torture their fellows with seemingly 
fiendish pleasure. How much harder is it to accept the 
unquestioned historical record when it pictures similar 
scenes in which the persecutor and the persecuted alike 
claim one Lord and one faith! Such is the true picture, 
however, during the period when Protestantism was 
girding itself for its great mission. 

8. The Persecution of the Albigenses. 

The Albigenses were the people of the mountainous 
district of Albi, in Southern France. Various small 
sects had here grown up, some better, some worse. 
Various leaders sprang up who preached against erection 
and use of crosses, against churches, etc. 

Under Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), who was 
zealous against heresy, the Albigenses suffered bitter 
persecution. His reign was a terror to liberty of thought 
and worship. When the movement was found even 
among the nobles of the land, the definite crusade of 
persecution began. Heaven was promised to all who 
should fall in the war of extermination of the Albigenses. 
Simon de Montfort led the army. The people gathered 
in the stronger towns. The siege of Beziers, in 1209, 
was one of the worst. The walls were broken down 
and the slaughter began. When asked by an officer, 
"How shall we know Catholics from heretics?" Arnold, 
the Abbot of Citeaux and Papal Legate, replied, "Slay 

104 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

them all; the Lord knoweth them that are His!" Not 
one was left alive. The bells of the cathedral rang until 
the massacre and pillage were completed, until twenty 
thousand people were killed. New armies, one hundred 
thousand strong, engaged in this terrible war of ex- 
termination. King Louis VIII led into it an army of per- 
haps twice that number. "The swarming misbelievers 
of Provence were almost literally drowned in blood. The 
ethical standard was, 'We are not to keep faith with 
those who do not keep faith with God.' Heresy is the 
murder of the soul." Those who escaped the crusader 
were more secretly destroyed by the Inquisition, now 
quite nearly perfected by Saint Dominic. It was per- 
manently established by the Council of Toulouse in 1229 
as "The tribunal for noting and exterminating all kinds 
of heretical pravity." 

Says Doctor W. M. Blackburn, in his "History of 
the Christian Church," regarding the Inquisition, "No 
legalized institution has ever done more to crush intel- 
lectual and religious liberty, or added more to the un- 
spoken miseries of the human race." Every layman 
daring to possess a Bible, now first forbidden to the laity 
by this council, was in peril of the rack, the dungeon, 
and the stake. The history of the Church in Spain for 
six hundred and fifty years is mainly that of the Inquisi- 
tion and its destruction of human life. 

9. Persecution of the Waldenses. 

These people were at first not a sect, but the Chris- 
tians of the Valleys, the Walds of Piedmont. Their 
first appearance as a body separate from the Church 
was in 1198, when James, Bishop of Turin, employed 
forcible measures against them. They seem to have 
been a people separate from the Albigenses. "When 

105 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

persecution brought them to the light of the world, they 
had the Bible, loved it and studied it; they had lay 
teachers and ordained Presbyters; were strongly op- 
posed to the entire system of Rome, declared the Pope 
to be Antichrist, and the Church ritual to be folly; re- 
fused confession to the priest, penances, the abuses con- 
nected with the only two divine sacraments, and nearly 
all the Roman rites: and it is hardly too much to say, 
that no candid reader of the creeds, confessions, and 
other public documents which they have left can hesitate 
to conclude that their leading opinions were very nearly 
the same as those which were afterwards entertained by 
Luther, Calvin, and other reformers, so that they fell 
in very readily with the Church of Geneva in the six- 
teenth century." 

The first combined attack upon them came in 1209, 
when they were between the fires of Rome and Ger- 
many. Neither pope nor emperor wanted a desolating 
crusade so near at hand, to give one an advantage over 
the other. They were not so inhumanly butchered, 
therefore, as were the Albigenses. 

Wars against them were local, but of long duration. 
Massacres ran on in woeful monotony; but nowhere 
was heroism more brilliant or patience more saintly. 
For two hundred years the Inquisition had been at 
work, and yet the Vaudois held to their faith and 
practically defied their enemies. By their stalwart 
Christian character they impressed the rulers, if not 
the leaders of the Church, so that they impelled the 
remark from one of the commissioners sent to investi- 
gate their belief and practice, "Would to God that I 
were as good a Christian as the worst of these people;" 
and from Louis XII, then in power, "They are, indeed, 
better men than we are." It was then that, in spite of 

106 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

the influence of their enemies, a halt was called in the 
awful work of destruction and they were spared. Milton 
was stirred, by the story of their noble character and 
their terrible sufferings, to give them a place in his 
immortal verse: 

"Avenge, Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones 

Lie seatter'd on the Alpine Mountains cold. 

Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worship'd stocks and stones, 
Forget not: in Thy book record their groans, 

Who are Thy sheep, and in Thy ancient fold. 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd 
Mother and infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow 
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 

The triple-tyrant; that from these may grow 
A hundred- fold; who having learn'd Thy way, 

Early may fly the Babylonian woe." 

Often these Vaudois mountaineers had occasion to 
say as Mrs. Hemans has represented: 

" For the strength of the hills we bless Thee, 

Our God, our fathers' God! 
Thou hast made Thy children mighty 

By the touch of the mountain sod. 
Thou hast fix'd our ark of refuge 

Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod; 
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee, 

Our God, our fathers' God. 



1 For the shadow of Thy presence 

Round our camp of rock outspread, 
For the stern defiles of battle 
Bearing record of our dead, 
For the snows and for the torrents, 

For the free heart's burial sod: 
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee, 
Our God, our fathers' God." 
107 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

10. The Huguenots in the Fires of Persecution. 

The Huguenots were French Protestants, though 
that term was not used until the end of the seventeenth 
century, and was then applied to the disciples of the 
Lutheran Reformation in Germany. 

A royal edict in January, 1562, gave liberty of wor- 
ship to the Protestants in France; but the concession 
was set at defiance by the papal party, whose leaders 
urged on the people in many districts to molest and 
attack the followers of the new faith. The Papists 
denounced the heretics and called upon the government 
to extirpate them; the Huguenots denounced the cor- 
ruptions of the Church, and demanded their reform. 
Then both parties armed and waited results. 

The crisis came when the Protestants of Vassey, in 
Champaign, continued their meetings after Antoinette 
de Bourbon, mother of the Guises and an ardent Roman 
Catholic, had threatened them with the vengeance of 
her son, the Duke of Guise. Things came to a crisis 
when, on the first of March, 1563, the people were 
attacked in their service by the Duke and a Cardinal of 
Guise with some two hundred men, and sixty were killed 
and more than two hundred severely wounded. 

The massacre at Vassey was the signal for Catholic 
France to rise against the Huguenots. The duke was 
acclaimed as the defender of the faith, and his deed 
glorified by the clergy from their pulpits. Then fol- 
lowed the most bitter attacks upon the Huguenots. 
Their churches were burnt, Bibles destroyed, and them- 
selves killed in large numbers. The scene enacted at 
Vassey was repeated at all the great centers where the 
Huguenots were established. At Tours the banks of 
the Loire were almost covered with the corpses of men, 

108 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

women, and even children. The same was true in 
Provence, where a great variety of tortures preceded the 
actual murder of the people. 

The Huguenots, taken by surprise, were unable to 
stand the tide at first, but rallied under the leadership 
of the Prince of Conde and of Admiral Coligny. The 
Huguenots avenged the death of their brethren by 
destroying churches and monasteries and hewing down 
images and ornamental work in the great cathedrals in 
many places. We can not go into details, but call atten- 
tion to the fact that the course they pursued was the 
well-nigh inevitable reaction against the unspeakable 
cruelties to which they had been subjected. They had 
been the passive victims of all unspeakable hate could 
suggest, and now they take their revenge; but their 
wrath was wreaked on wood and stone, while their 
enemies had destroyed life. 

In the war that followed, the Huguenots were out- 
numbered. They fought bravely but against terrible 
odds in numbers; and, as the king and queen were at 
the head of the Guise party, they fought as rebels. 
They suffered defeat after defeat, but rallied as often as 
defeated, and sometimes in even greater numbers than 
before. After France had been devastated throughout 
by the contending armies, and Paris even had been 
threatened by the Huguenot forces, peace became a 
necessity, and was effected by a treaty signed at St. 
Germain in 1570. By that treaty the Protestants 
were granted liberty of worship, equality before the law, 
and admission to the universities, while the four prin- 
cipal towns of Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and 
La Charite were committed to them as a pledge of 
safety. 

To even sketch what followed would take us beyond 
109 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

our bounds. The account of the famous Council of 
Trent, which met in 1545, and continued its work for 
sixteen years; the codification of the laws of the Roman 
Catholic Church and the devising of the measures for 
the suppression of heresy; the coalition between Cath- 
erine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva, minister of 
Philip II of Spain — these subjects must be passed with 
the mere mention. The coalition formed augured ill for 
the Huguenots. All that was needed in addition was 
the use of the Order of the Jesuits, recently organized 
by Ignatius Loyola. The members of this order were 
as eager to extirpate heresy as Philip II or Catherine de 
Medicis, and so the power of Church organization, com- 
bined with the power of Spain, destroy root and branch 
of the hated Huguenots. Neither State nor Church 
showed any pity. 

The first field of operation of the Jesuits was Flanders. 
Here the Inquisition was set up by the order of Philip, 
with Cardinal Grenvelle as Inquisitor- General. There 
was opposition on the part of Catholics as well as Prot- 
estants. A terrible struggle followed, and all classes 
suffered most terribly. All who could fled from the 
country. The Duke of Alva carried on the persecution 
for six years, and boasted that he had sent eighteen 
thousand persons to their death on the scaffold. Besides 
these, there was the large number killed in war. Many, 
too, had fled from the country — according to the Duchess 
of Parma, in a letter to Philip in 1567, no less than one 
hundred thousand. For many years this exodus con- 
tinued from the low countries. They fled to England, 
Holland, and Germany. It is claimed that several hun- 
dred thousands of her best artisans left Flanders. That 
the number of Protestants must have been very large 
at that time is evident. According to Sir Thomas 

110 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

Gresham's estimate, there were not less than forty 
thousand in Antwerp alone. 

The general features of this historic record are com- 
monly known. By the marriage of Margaret, the 
daughter of Catherine de Medicis, to Henry of Beam, 
King of Navarre, the leader among the Huguenots, and 
by the apparently cordial relations between the two 
parties in the wedding festivities, the fears of the Hugue- 
nots were disarmed. Thus the way was prepared for 
the terrible massacre that makes one of the bloodiest 
pages of all human history. A reward of fifty thousand 
crowns was offered for the head of Admiral Coligny, and 
a day was fixed for the massacre. The ringing of the 
bell for prayers early in the morning of August 24, 1572, 
was the signal. With the cry, "For God and the king," 
three hundred of the royal guard began the terrible 
three days' massacre. The Duke of Guise himself sought 
out Coligny, and, with his followers, broke into his 
quarters in a hotel, where they stabbed him and threw 
his body out of the window. The houses of the Hugue- 
nots throughout Paris were broken into, and men and 
women, and children as well, were sabered or shot. 
Flight was useless, for fugitives were slaughtered in the 
streets. "Corpses blocked the doorways, mutilated 
bodies lay in every lane and passage, and thousands 
were cast into the Seine, then swollen by a flood/' For 
three days the slaughter lasted. 

This was followed by similar deeds all over France. 
From 1,500 to 1,800 persons were killed at Lyons, 600 
at Rouen, and many more at Dieppe and Havre. Esti- 
mates vary as to the whole number slain — from 70,000 
to 100,000. 

Samuel Smiles thus sums up the case: "Catherine de 
Medicis wrote in triumph to Alva, to Philip II, and 

111 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

to the Pope of the results of the three days' dreadful 
work in Paris. When Philip heard of the massacre, he 
is said to have laughed for the first and only time in his 
life. Rome was thrown into a delirium of joy at the 
news. The cannons were fired at St. Angelo; Gregory 
XIII and his cardinals went in procession from sanctuary 
to sanctuary to give God thanks for the massacre. The 
subject was ordered to be painted, and a medal was 
struck with the pope's image on one side and the destroy- 
ing angel on the other immolating the Huguenots. 
Cardinal Orsini was despatched on a special mission to 
Paris to congratulate the king. On his passage through 
Lyons, the assassins of the Huguenots there, the blood 
on their hands scarce dry, knelt before the holy man 
in the cathedral and received his blessing. At Paris the 
triumphant clergy celebrated the massacre by a public 
procession, and determined to consecrate to it an annual 
jubilee on the day of St. Bartholomew. They, too, had 
a medal struck in commemoration of the event bearing 
the legend, * Piety has awakened Justice.' Be it said 
to the credit of the young King of France, that he had 
heart enough so that he suffered untold misery as the 
vision of those days passed ever before his mind." 

After this terrible event the Huguenots gathered in 
certain cities where they could defend themselves or 
make their escape wherever possible in ships and boats 
to England. The great mass of the people had to re- 
main, however, and the war continued with much suf- 
fering until Henry IV came to the throne in 1594. Henry 
was not a religious man, and had become a Huguenot 
for political reasons. He now espoused the opposite 
side because he thought his life would be safer and peace 
would thus be assured. One of his greatest and most 
just acts was the promulgation, in 1598, of the cele- 

112 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

brated Edict of Nantes, by which the Huguenots, after 
sixty years of persecution, were allowed at last com- 
parative liberty of conscience and freedom of worship. 

11. Persecution in North America. 

An outline study even of this subject would not be 
complete without a reference to the persecutions endured 
by those who sought to Christianize the Indian tribes of 
North America. Francis Parkman's extended and 
graphic account is available for those who wish to go 
into the sickening details. It must suffice here to say 
that the history of the persecution of those who have 
sought to lift peoples out of superstition and darkness 
has no record of more barbaric cruelty than that we 
find here. One can but wonder that men would endure 
what the Jesuit priests suffered in the wilds of this New 
World in order that they might gain the consent of un- 
lettered savages to accept baptism, or might, with a few 
muttered words, sprinkle the baptismal water on the 
head of a mere babe. We wonder at their narrow vision 
and at what they endured in their effort to be true to 
what they counted a divine calling, and honor them for 
doing what they considered to be their duty. We can 
not help asking, in such a connection, what a like 
devotion by the whole Protestant Church, with its 
broader vision and clearer light, would mean. 

12. Persecution in Various Mission Fields. 

The year 1886 was one of great persecution in Africa, 
under Mwanga, by whose order Bishop Hannington had 
been murdered the year before. So bravely did the 
martyrs meet death that the head executioner reported 
to the king that he had never known men to meet death 
with such fortitude, and added that they had prayed 
8 113 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

aloud to God in the fire. After Mwanga was driven from 
the throne, and the Arabs ruled, the missionaries were 
expelled. 

In Uganda two boys especially dear to Mackay were 
the first martyrs. Then "the very flower of the Christian 
community, thirty-two in number, were slowly burnt to 
death, and that, too, by Mwanga's express orders. These 
martyrs made a noble confession, praying to God in the 
fire." 

Burma, like most other lands, was the scene of per- 
secution. In the first forty-three years of the work of 
the Baptist Mission there forty-one missionaries died in 
that field, some of them having suffered much persecu- 
tion for the sake of Christ. Adoniram Judson was one 
of these. We read of the bitter persecution of the Karen 
Christians, and are told that in one district "the con- 
verts were beaten, chained, fined, imprisoned, sold as 
slaves, tortured, and put to death, but not one apos- 
tatized." 

In the South Sea Islands, John Williams, after ac- 
complishing wonderful work in Samoa and Rarotonga, 
was killed by cannibals in Erromanga, where the Gordon 
brothers also suffered martyrdom. On the Island of 
Nukapu of the Santa Cruz group Bishop Patteson was 
murdered and his body set adrift in a canoe. 

In New Guinea the loss of life was great. In twenty 
years from the opening of the work one hundred and 
twenty native teachers died of fever or as martyrs, and 
yet the ranks were always full. 

13. The Martyr Church of Madagascar. 

The Church in Madagascar has been called the 
Martyr Church. Here slavery had a large place, and 
gross superstition covered the people. The work, opened 

114 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

under great difficulty, soon began to advance, and grew 
so rapidly in favor that it excited opposition, and orders 
came from the king, prohibiting the children meeting 
for public worship. This did not, however, avail to 
check the work. The tide then seemed to turn in their 
favor, and official sanction was given to such as wished 
to receive baptism to do so. Changes in the government, 
however, again brought a change in feeling, but still the 
issue was uncertain. Finally the prosperity of the work 
aroused the authorities so much that various restrictions 
were placed upon it; but the seed had been so widely 
and well-sown that this did not avail to check the move- 
ment. 

After calling together all the people, one week was 
given to them in which to appear before the authorities 
and make confession of the offenses they had com- 
mitted, referring to the forms of Christian worship in 
which they had engaged. Those who did not do so were 
threatened with death. While death was not then 
visited upon them, the missionaries were banished and 
various repressive measures were adopted. At length 
darkness settled over the Church. Madagascar was 
ruled at that time by a woman, and the first to suffer 
seriously in the persecution were two women, one of 
whom was sent into perpetual banishment and the other 
thrust through with spears. This was but the beginning 
of a persecution that long wasted the Church. In this 
persecution many were sold into slavery; many more 
were compelled to drink poison; others died by the 
spear; others still were thrown headfirst into pits, after 
which hot water was poured upon them till death came 
to their relief; others, again, were hurled from a high 
precipice or stoned to death or hacked to pieces and 
then burned; yet others were condemned to a life of 

115 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

convict labor, while the rich were often fined so they 
were reduced to poverty. Under such persecution the 
Church of Madagascar was founded. 

14. The Church in China in the Furnace of Persecution. 

The investment for the building of the Kingdom was 
not completed in the days when Christianity was new, 
nor even in the ages when darkness shrouded the na- 
tions. To the Church of the nineteenth century it was 
left to enter into the sufferings as well as the labors of 
the earlier and darker ages. After a century of mis- 
sionary activity, the success of which stamped it as a 
new beginning in the great work of world evangeliza- 
tion, the Church of Christ was appalled when the Middle 
Kingdom became the scene of a persecution that for 
breadth of extent, intensity of hatred, and barbarity in 
execution has not been equaled since the early Chris- 
tian ages. It matters not to us here that there was a 
political side to the Boxer uprising, or that racial feeling 
had had much to do with its inception. The fact we 
deal with here is that the followers of Jesus Christ, 
Chinese as well as foreign-born, were sought out, sub- 
jected to tortures unspeakable, and put to death by the 
most cruel means that could be devised. Omitting 
names of persons and places, the whole record could be 
made a part of the old history of the first three centuries 
without any lightening of its blackness. 

As in all persecutions, exactness in numerical detail 
is an impossibility. Suffice it to say that it touched 
nearly all large sections of the Chinese Empire, wasted 
all sections of the Church, gave the crown of martyrdom, 
as in the Early Church, to men and women, boys and 
girls, and that, when the list was complete, it numbered 
many thousands — some claiming as many as thirty 

116 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

thousand. The means of escape was almost always 
present, and was much like that under Pagan Rome — 
burn incense in the temple or in some way show allegiance 
to heathen gods or systems of worship. As one reads 
the history of these persecutions, he is sometimes tempted 
to wonder, not that some burned incense to save life, 
but that so many refused life on such terms. For a 
detailed report of those terrible days in 1900 when the 
Church in China passed through the fiery trial of per- 
secution, we must refer the reader to recent books on 
China that deal directly with that history or refer to it. 
History furnishes no better tonic to faith, nothing more 
inspiring to faint-heartedness, with reference to final 
conquest, than this record of faithfulness even unto 
death. It must suffice for our purpose to merely give 
enough incidents to show the spirit with which life was 
sacrificed because of faith in Christ. The incidents 
recorded here are selected from a long list, each one of 
which is of interest, depicting as it does a testing as 
severe as could be devised and a fortitude and faithful- 
ness that stood the test. 

The first incident is that of Mr. Li, pastor of a 
Church. The Boxer cordon is drawn closer and closer 
about his field of labor. His own life and that of his 
people is in imminent danger. He is warned, but refuses 
to leave his people in order to seek safety in flight. 
News is brought of the burning of the churches and the 
murder of the Christians in surrounding villages; but 
still, when urged to flee, he refuses to leave his people. 
An effort to escape is finally agreed upon, but not until 
all are included. The bands are formed, and they leave 
their church and homes to seek safety together. On 
the way they are surrounded and seized. There were 
six children in the company. Mrs. Li pleaded for the 

117 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

life of her infant, but it was snatched from her arms and 
was the first to be killed by the blood-thirsty mob. The 
rest were ruthlessly killed with knives and spears, except 
a Mrs. Yang, whose two children had been destroyed 
before her eyes. Her life was preserved with the hope 
that thus they might the better secure her husband, who, 
they claimed, was serving as a spy for the foreigners. 

In a revival in 1900, Ton Lien Ming, a student in 
the Peking University, received a great spiritual baptism 
that showed in his face and in the earnestness of his 
service. A few months later the Boxer uprising came. 
He was seized and taken to a temple, where he was 
commanded to recant. He firmly refused to burn in- 
cense and kotow, and gave his declaration with firm- 
ness, "I am a Christian, a follower of the Lord Jesus 
Christ," and then went on to tell them of the love of 
God. Dragged away by the mob to a street newly- 
named, "Kill-Foreigner Street," he still continued to 
testify to his faith and to exhort them to be reconciled 
to God until his testimony and life were cut short by 
the sword. 

Another young man named Ton Wei Ch'eng was 
seized and asked if he were a Christian. On his admis- 
sion that he was, they beat him over the head; but he 
preached Christ to them. Then they cut out his tongue, 
but he still tried to tell them of Jesus. Finally they dis- 
emboweled him, but with his latest breath he tried to 
point them to Christ. 

We read of a woman and her six-year-old boy being 
driven at the point of swords into the flames of her own 
burning house; of an eleven-year-old girl wandering by 
night from village to village and hiding in cemeteries 
after her parents had been killed and her friends scat- 
tered; of a family of four killed one after the other, each 

118 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

being given another opportunity to recant after wit- 
nessing the death of the last; of whole families being 
destroyed or only a single member being left, and re- 
turning to seek home and friends and finding only the 
ruins of his house; of many who wandered in hunger 
and thirst and subject to exposure; of experiences that 
warrant almost an exact duplication of that found in 
the eleventh of Hebrews. 

Surely the investment of life through martyrdom in 
China has been a heavy one. If the blood of the martyrs 
is the seed of the Church, China's harvest of blessing 
will be great. One can not but pause for a moment to 
think of the loyalty to Christ displayed by these thou- 
sands in China who laid down their lives for their faith, 
and of other thousands as loyal who stood the fiery 
ordeal without wavering though not called upon to give 
up life itself; and as one considers their unwavering 
devotion, the question will arise, "What would similar 
loyalty to Christ and devotion to His cause on the 
part of the Christian Church in Christian lands mean 
in the building up of His Kingdom in all the earth?" 

15. The Fires of Persecution Kindled Again and Again 
in Turkey. 

Turkey has been the scene of terrible persecutions of 
Christians during the past one hundred years. The 
Sultan Mahmoud, in 1822, caused the death of some 
fifty thousand defenseless Christians in the Island of 
Chios. 

These people had fully submitted, having given up 
not only their arms, furnished hostages, and paid large 
sums of money, but even the small knives used in cutting 
their bread. Then down upon them, defenseless as they 
were, swept the pitiless Turkish fleet, and, with assur- 

119 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ances of safety, gathered thera together and then ruth- 
lessly murdered them. The children and women es- 
caped death and were driven off to be sold in the markets 
of Smyrna, Constantinople, and Broussa. 

Another great slaughter came in 1850 in the Kurdish 
Mountains when ten thousand Nestorians were the 
victims of Turkish ferocity. Of these nine thousand 
were massacred and "one thousand men, women, and 
children," to quote Green in "The Rule of the Turks,'* 
"concealed themselves in a mountain fastness. Bedar 
Khan Beg, an officer of rank in the employment of the 
sultan, unable to get at them, surrounded the place and 
waited until they should be compelled to yield by 
hunger and thirst. Then he offered to spare their lives 
on the surrender of their arms and property, terms 
ratified by an oath on the Koran. The Kurds were then 
admitted to the platform. After they had disarmed 
their prisoners, they commenced an indiscriminate 
slaughter until, weary of using their weapons, they 
hurled the few survivors from the rocks into the River 
Zab below. Out of nearly one thousand, only one 
escaped." 

The next massacre came in 1860, and this time the 
victims numbered eleven thousand, and were Maronitcs 
and Syrians in the Lebanon and Damascus. 

In 1867 the Cretans were the objects of Turkish 
hate, in 1876 the Bulgarians, and in 1877 the Armenians. 
Those who suffered were Christians, and the reason 
seems to have been merely fear of the prosperity and 
power of the Christians. These massacres were not 
unofficial. They were carried out on the principle 
stated by one of the sultan's governors that "the Turkish 
Government can only maintain its supremacy in Syria 
by cutting down the Christian sects." 

120 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

In August, 1894, Turkish Government troops, with 
whom the Kurds co-operated, began a butchery of 
defenseless Armenians that lasted for three weeks. It 
began at Sassoun. In this case the massacre was begun 
by reading the sultan's firman for extermination. Dur- 
ing the summer the massacre went on in village after vil- 
lage. Loyalty to government was not rewarded by 
exemption from the death-fate. The crime was not dis- 
loyalty, it was not a failure to meet all government 
demands — it was simply being Christians. The mas- 
sacre lasted until about the middle of September. In 
that summer not less than ten thousand Armenians 
were butchered. Says Doctor Robert E. Speer, in 
"Missions and Modern History:" "But this was only 
its beginning. Other massacres followed as soon as it 
became evident that England would not prevent it and 
that the other powers would not interfere. Left to his 
own will, the sultan planned more and worse. Awak- 
ened by the taste of plunder, Kurd and Turk alike 
leaped to the gratification of greed and lust, while, 
through all, the religious hate of Islam furnished sultan 
and subject alike with the highest vindication of the 
course of infamous crime. There were eleven massacres 
in October, 1895, and ten in November, and it was 
estimated at that time that 20,000 Armenians were 
killed in large towns, 2,500 villages destroyed, with an 
unknown number of villagers murdered, and 75,000 
people reduced to starvation in the large towns and 
350,000 in the villages." 

Similar scenes were enacted elsewhere. Those who 
refused to become Moslems w r ere tortured and put to 
death. The methods of torture were as terrible as those 
adopted in any age of the history of the Church. For 
two years these atrocities in Armenia continued, during 

121 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

which events too terrible to record were being daily- 
enacted. And what was the reason? In the last analy- 
sis the real reason is found in the fact that these people 
bore the name of Christ and refused to reject Him and 
swear allegiance to Mohammed. The fact that oppor- 
tunity was constantly being given to purchase safety by 
accepting the faith of Mohammed shows the real spirit 
back of it and the object sought. 

16. Other Fields Consecrated by Martyr Blood. 

Afghanistan, not open yet to the messenger of the 
gospel, has already been consecrated by martyr blood. 
The story of Abdul Karim, an Afghan convert, shows 
what must be expected before Christianity shall be 
established in that land. Converted to the Christian 
faith in India, Abdul Karim, anxious to take the gospel 
to his own land, crossed the border. He was seized by 
soldiers and taken before the governor of Kandahar. 
Here he was offered rewards and honors if he would 
recant. He refused, and was loaded with chains and 
cast into prison. Later he was sent to Kabul in chains, 
with bit and bridle in mouth, and was laughed at and 
mistreated by the Mohammedans he met. When finally 
set at liberty, he tried to return to India, but was again 
seized, taken to the mosque, and ordered to repeat the 
Moslem creed. When he refused they cut off his right 
arm with a sword, and when he continued to refuse his 
left arm was cut off. As he would not then repeat the 
Moslem creed, they cut his throat. 

But we can not follow this subject farther. Time 
fails to trace the bloody history at greater length. Suf- 
fice it to say that Korea, Japan, Anam, India, and all 
other mission fields have witnessed an investment of life 
in building Christ's Kingdom that demands heroic 

122 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

service on the part of the Church to assure the fullest 
possible fruitage. In India, and sometimes in other 
lands, the persecution has been largely under cover, but 
has been by no means small, and has been of a character 
calculated to test most keenly. Such history must be 
forever largely unwritten. No higher heroism has been 
displayed than that of many whose faithfulness has 
stood the test of threat and pleading, and then has not 
failed when facing open doors that if once closed upon 
them would shut out all hopes. What the closing chap- 
ters of such lives has been, none can know. That many 
have thus gone to the martyr's grave is more than 
probable. To the heroic of the ages the Church of 
to-day is debtor for an investment that has enriched her 
in faith and in spirit by inspiring to nobler living, as well 
as by extending her borders. 

17. Closing Thoughts Regarding the Investment in Life. 

We pause as we close this section to put a word of 
emphasis on the thought suggested by this picture of 
bloodshed and incredible suffering for the sake of 
Christ. The Church has been builded at tremendous 
cost. The heritage of an open Bible and an untram- 
meled and conquering faith we have received has not 
been secured and transmitted to us without large sacri- 
fice of that which man holds most dear — his very life 
itself. Earthly governments have not been founded and 
perpetuated without large sacrifice of life, but in such 
building the sword was the weapon of both sides. The 
builders of the Kingdom of God among men wield no 
sword, except "the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
Word of God," and yet they have fallen by the sword. 
Their blood has consecrated every land, and they have 
gained some of the largest victories in death. How 

123 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

many have sealed their testimony with their blood no 
man knows. 

The great question for us to-day is, whether the 
vantage ground gained by the Church at such tre- 
mendous cost shall be lost because we lack the spirit 
that made men and women faithful even in face of tor- 
ture and death. We know that the Church has been at 
fault at this point again and again. North Africa, 
Arabia, Persia, and the land forever hallowed by the 
presence of Christ in the flesh have stood for more than 
half the Christian era as silent witnesses to the possible 
back-swinging into darkness of peoples who have had 
the light. The reason is never far to seek or hard to 
find — a loss of the spirit that "counts all things as loss 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." 
Lands where martyr blood was shed and service, heroic 
to the highest degree, rendered have for twelve cen- 
turies known scarce a gleam of light, and to-day the 
Church is trying to regain ground then lost. There are 
fields to-day where Christianity has a foothold and 
where early and large victory waits on the Church's 
faithfulness. Opposing forces are at work, and the 
vantage ground gained may be easily lost. While the 
Church sleeps, tares are being sown whose growth is 
sure to mean harder toil and a lessened and delayed 
harvest. In some places terrible persecutions have been 
endured, and in none has the advance ground now held 
been gained without heroic toil and no little sacrifice. 
We can not pass from this subject without pressing 
most strongly the question, "Is the Church, knowing the 
history of the past with the cost of the work done and 
the dying command of Jesus Christ, going to place 
money or ease or life itself at so high a premium that 
the world-plan of the great Head of the Church must 

124 



INVESTMENT IN LIFE. 

wait for another generation to assure its accomplish- 
ment? " 

Whitened fields now demand the unstinted labor of 
the reaper, and delay always means loss. Shall fields 
brought to harvest whiteness by investment of heroic 
service and precious life be left uncared for because the 
harvest will cost more service and a little more, or even 
much more, of the money the Lord has committed to 
His stewards? 

"Hark the voice of Jesus calling, 

Who will go and work to-day? 
Fields are white and harvests waiting, 

Who will bear the sheaves away? 
Loud and long the Master calleth, 

Rich reward He offers free; 
Who will answer, gladly saying, 

Here am I, send me, send me?" 

Strange, indeed, it seems that He must call so long 
and so loud and seemingly awake only echoes where 
there should be the responses of living men and women 
not a few, with fire-touched lips, "Here am I, send me, 
send me!" while a great host press forward and respond 
in unison — 

"Take my silver and my gold, 
Not a mite would I withhold." 

Such a response would mean that upon the founda- 
tions laid in blood there would speedily be reared a 
glorious temple to our God. Into that spiritual temple 
all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues would be 
builded. Who can wonder if life be a part of the cost of 
rearing such a structure? 

125 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

"Life is the cost. 

Behold yon tower 
That heavenward lifts 
To the cloudy drifts — 

Like a flame, like a flower! 
What lightness, what grace, 

What a dream of power! 

One last endeavor, 
One stone to place — 

And it stands forever. 

"A slip, a fall; 
A cry, a call; 
Turn away, all 's done. 
Stands the tower in the sun 
For ever and a day. 
On the pavement below 
The crimson stain 
Will be worn away 
In the ebb and flow; 
The tower will remain. 
Life is the cost." — Richard Watson Gilder. 



126 



CHAPTER III. 
INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 



The True Christian Spirit Regarding Material Resources: 

"I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except 
in its relation to the Kingdom of God."— David Livingstone. 

" Take my silver and my gold, 
Not a mite would I withhold." 

— Frances R. Havergal. 



"Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be 
meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith if I will not open you 
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall 
not be room enough to receive it." — The Lord of Hosts. 

"With my substance I will honor 
My Redeemer and my Lord; 
Were ten thousand worlds my manor, 

All were nothing to His Word: 
While the heralds of salvation 

His abounding grace proclaim, 
Let, His friends, of every station, 
Gladly join to spread His fame." 

— Benjamin Francis. 

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my soul, my life, my all." 

— Isaac Watts. 



CHAPTER III. 

Investment in Material Resources. 

No world movement has ever been carried out without 
financial outlay. No campaign by which conquest is 
sought, whether that conquest is over the forces of 
nature or human governments, or over the minds and 
hearts of men, can be carried on without the money 
factor. Human governments have again and again been 
impoverished and loaded with almost unbearable bur- 
dens of debt in financing some project for the advance- 
ment of their interests. The outlay in these movements 
is sometimes lavish in the extreme, so that taxation be- 
comes abnormally heavy. The extension of an earthly 
kingdom is expected to be costly, and its defense, even, 
is often secured by almost fabulous sums of money. 
Persia and Greece, Rome and Carthage, in the day of 
their power, knew, and in later times all the great 
nations of the earth have known, the cost of temporal 
conquests. Xerxes, Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, Na- 
poleon, Wellington, Grant, and Lee waged great cam- 
paigns, but the cost was enormous. 

In the Civil War in the United States more than 
$5,000,000,000 were expended by both sides, and it is 
probable that the sacrifice by loss of property and decline 
of production was at least as much more. 

Denmark put about $36,000,000 into a single war in 
1864, while Prussia and Austria expended as much more 
in the same struggle. The Prussian and Austrian War 
of 1866 cost over $300,000,000. 

» m 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

In the war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78, 
Russia expended over $805,000,000, and Turkey at least 
half that sum. 

The Crimean War cost England, France, Russia, 
Austria, Turkey, and Sardinia, together, about $1,700,- 
000,000. In the War of 1859 France, Austria, and Sar- 
dinia expended over $250,000,000. 

The United States, from 1898 to 1905, inclusive, 
spent on war and warfare $1,200,000,000, or $150,000,000 
a year. In the twenty-five years from 1878 to 1902 the 
per capita expense for sustaining the United States army 
and navy was $1.49, while in the five years of war and 
warfare it rose to $2.77. 

Europe expended on wars the second half of the 
nineteenth century about $6,100,000,000, to which must 
be added the expense of militarism to get the full ex- 
pense or account of arms and armament. 

The following figures are suggestive: In 1896 the 
following were the expenditures of the countries named 
on their armies: Austria, $67,250,000; Italy, $63,250,- 
000; France, $161,500,000; Russia, $207,000,000; or a 
total of $499,000,000. 

To what nations put into wars or arms and armament 
expenses must always be added the item of loss from 
the decline of production by taking an army of men out 
of the class of producers. When England keeps 200,000 
men under arms at a cost of about $100,000,000 an- 
nually, that sum does not show all it means financially 
to the country. That company of 200,000 men are a 
charge on the public and not producers of wealth. 

We have given enough figures to show that great 
material resources are counted necessary and are lav- 
ishly expended when earthly governments seek to further 
their interests by war. Victories are costly. 

130 



INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 

When we turn to the field of exploration, we find the 
financial factor prominent. Before Columbus could 
start out on his voyage of discovery he had to sit down 
and count the cost, and then secure royal support of 
his project. The exploration of the frozen North and 
South has cost heavily, not only in life, but also in 
money. Fortunes have been expended on this and 
other projects that had for their object an increase of 
knowledge of the world in which we live. 

The investments in the study of the heavens and of 
the earth, in a scientific way, have been exceedingly 
great. The astronomer, geographer, geologist, chemist, 
biologist, as well as the explorer, have rendered valuable 
service; but that service has meant a money investment 
of no small size. Great pursuits — military, commercial, 
scientific, and those of exploration and invention — de- 
mand large outlay in money. Through centuries the 
investment has been made in ever-increasing amounts as 
the real value of such pursuits has been increasingly well 
understood. 

Side by side with the building of earthly kingdoms 
and their protection and support, another kingdom has 
been in the process of building in the earth. It differs 
from earthly kingdoms in foundation, extent, character, 
and program; but, while it is indeed the Kingdom of 
God, man has a place in the work of its building, and 
material resources are an essential factor. How much 
has been put into this work in the almost nineteen cen- 
turies since the first disciples of Jesus went forth, empty- 
handed, no man can know. The greatest expense in 
the Early Church must have been in defraying the per- 
sonal expenses of the workers as they went everywhere 
preaching the gospel. The greater part of such expenses 
may have been, as in the case of Apostle Paul, largely 

131 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

provided by the workers themselves. Gradually, how- 
ever, under the necessities of the case and the Scriptural 
declaration, "the laborer is worthy of his hire," financial 
help was given to those who traveled and preached. 
From the first the Church was exhorted to liberality in 
providing for the poor, and in very early times the 
charge of such upon the Church became an expense by 
no means small. In the apostolic days, too, little atten- 
tion was given to places of worship apart from the 
houses of Christian people, or perhaps a common room 
of large size rented for the purpose. That such a pro- 
gram could not be the permanent one for all time one 
can easily see. So long as the movement was along lines 
where the Jew had gone and marked his way with 
synagogues, the Christian disciples utilized these places 
of worship for preaching Jesus and the Resurrection 
until opposition hindered them from doing so. The 
erection of churches naturally followed the gathering of 
disciples in any place, for, in addition to the real need, 
there was a constant suggestion of such a course in the 
fact of heathen temples and Jewish synagogues. 

It was not, however, until two centuries had passed 
that much was done in that direction. Before Chris- 
tianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, how- 
ever, the Christians had built numberless houses of 
worship, and many of them are said to have been as 
splendid as the heathen temples. Coming down to the 
times of the Normans in England, we find churches 
rising in every village and monasteries in towns and 
cities. The investment in church-building during the 
centuries of the Christian era must have made in the 
aggregate an exceedingly large sum. 

It may be of interest to get at least a little idea of 
the investment by the Church to-day in lands and 

132 



INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 

buildings. Without attempting complete figures for the 
whole of Christendom, we record those for the United 
States and for the foreign mission fields of Protestant 
Christianity. 

In 1906 the value of all church and parsonage prop- 
erty of the Protestant Church in the United States was 
reported as $1,079,438,431, and only about one-seventh 
of the Protestant population of the world is in the 
United States. In the case of the Roman Catholic 
Church, with 12,367,530 members, the property valua- 
tion of churches reported is $321,633,289; but this popu- 
lation is only about one-twenty-second part of the 
Roman Catholic population of the world, and only one- 
thirty-second part of the numerical strength of the Ro- 
man Catholic and Eastern Churches combined. These 
facts show that eleven figures will be required to express 
the value of the property investment of all Christendom. 
In the above study no reference has been had to the 
vast investment of the Church in property used for 
educational purposes. We go thus far to show that, 
while exact figures are difficult to obtain, if, indeed, it is 
possible at all, the present investment by the Church is 
worthy of special note because of its very great amount. 

But the above is only one part of the real invest- 
ment. According to Doctor Daniel Dorchester, in his 
book, "The Problem of Religious Progress," the foreign 
missionary societies of the United States had received in 
the aggregate, up to 1894, the large sum of $101,561,964. 
In the eighty-four years since the first organization was 
effected, the annual increase had gone from $20,621 to 
$3,282,251, and in the eighteen years since there had 
been a constant advance, until the receipts of these 
boards in 1906 was $8,655,981. 

Professor Christlieb made an estimate that the con- 
133 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tributions for foreign mission boards in Europe and 
America aggregated, in 1800, $250,000; in 1850, $2,959,- 
541.16; and in 1872, $7,874,155. 

The total receipts of Protestant foreign missionary- 
societies up to 1879 has been estimated to have been 
$270,000,000, but of that amount $200,000,000 was col- 
lected in the last three decades of that period. At the 
present time eight of the largest missionary societies of 
the British Isles are collecting about eight and a half 
millions of dollars annually for foreign missions, while 
eleven of the largest in the United States and Canada 
are raising about nine and a half millions, and the total 
contributions of all the societies of the United States 
and Canada are considerably above thirteen millions a 
year. Thus the British Isles and the United States 
and Canada, combined, contribute over twenty-two 
millions of dollars a year for this work, and the whole of 
Protestantism must closely approximate $100,000,000 
every three years; and that from 1879 the aggregate 
has been not less than $12,000,000 a year, or say $380,- 
000,000, making the sum total of $650,000,000 since the 
dawn of the eighteenth century. This amount may 
seem large, but it ought to be large, for it must be 
remembered that the Protestant world now numbers, at 
the lowest estimate, 143,237,625, and is placed by some 
as high as 166,066,500. Taking the lowest figures, if 
each person was to give one dollar a year for the next 
five years, the aggregate would be $716,188,125 — an 
amount larger than our estimated amount for the last 
two centuries. 

But what we want to emphasize here is that in the 
aggregate the Church of Jesus Christ has invested 
largely in a material way in the building of the Kingdom 
of God among men. Our study has only hinted at the 

134 



INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 

investment in travel, church-building, support of the 
ministry, and work for heathen people, and these items 
have only been considered for brief periods instead of 
for the centuries. We must also call attention to the 
fact of the investment in Christian literature, in insti- 
tutional work of many kinds — including schools, col- 
leges, hospitals, publishing houses, etc. While no one 
would attempt to even suggest what the grand total of 
investment for nineteen centuries has been, every one 
who stops to think seriously on this subject will surely 
admit that there has been an exceedingly large amount, 
in the aggregate, put into this work. 

We call attention to these facts to give emphasis to 
the point we are trying to enforce, namely, that the 
expenditure in money, in service, in life itself should not 
be allowed to fail, to any degree, in accomplishing its 
great object by a failure to continue to build on the 
foundations laid or to push the battle against all the 
strongholds of false faiths and the iniquities of their 
degraded social systems until God's will shall be ac- 
complished in the earth. It is a fact that no one will 
challenge, that ofttimes in the history of the Church 
victories great in themselves, and that have prepared 
the way for great advance, have been largely nullified 
by the fact that material resources have not been pro- 
vided to strike blow after blow and to keep alive the 
spirit of conquest. 

The conviction is strong upon us that what has just 
been written calls attention to a present danger, as well 
as to a fact of past history. How long can we expect 
doors wide open to-day to remain open, if we fail to 
enter them? How long will men cry, "Come over and 
help us," if we apparently turn a deaf ear to their cry? 
Will fields white unto the harvest to-day be still await- 

135 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ing the Christian harvester if he waits a decade, or even 
a year, before thrusting in the sickle? To-day is the 
day of opportunity because it is the day when most 
lands are open and when vast masses of the people are 
ready to give up their false faiths and accept Jesus 
Christ. This is the day of large responsibilities, too, 
because the fields are white, the Divine Commission 
urgent, the ability of the Church sufficient, and the 
danger in delay most serious. 

"Shall we whose souls are lighted 
With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we to men benighted 
The lamp of life deny?" 

We sing this stirring interrogatory again and again, 
and then give our charge to the winds: 

"Waft, waft, ye winds, His story. 
And you ye waters roll 
Till like a sea of glory 

It spreads from pole to pole. 

"Till o'er our ransomed spirits, 
The Lamb for sinners slain — 
Redeemer, King, Creator — 
In bliss returns to reign." 

In this day of unprecedented opportunity and re- 
sultant responsibility we need a clarion call to men and 
women, and not to winds and waters. All material 
things will fill their place when the Church, thoroughly 
devoted to the great work of this world's redemption 
from false faiths, degraded social systems, and unholy 
living, shall rise to its great task with the resolute pur- 
pose to withhold nothing, but to use all to accomplish 
its mission. The investment in a material way has 

136 



INVESTMENT IN MATERIAL RESOURCES. 

been great in the aggregate, but had it been commen- 
surate with the Church's ability and the world's need, 
the darkness of false faiths would not to so large a 
degree still cover the face of the two greatest continents 
of earth and vast stretches besides. We shall discuss in 
later chapters "The Equipment for World-Conquest" 
and "The Cost of World-Conquest," and those subjects 
will call for the further treatment of our responsibility 
and our ability to discharge it. Lest any one may feel 
that the responsibility is too heavy and the ability too 
little to discharge it, we close this section with David 
Livingstone's suggestive words, "We do not know what 
we can do until we try." 



137 



CHAPTER IV. 

INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 



Investment in Intercession the Christian's Duty: 

"Ask, and it shall be given you." — Jesus Christ. 

"To God your every want 
In instant prayer display: 
Pray always; pray and never faint; 
Pray, without ceasing, pray!" — Charles Wesley. 



"Come, my soul, thy suit prepare, 
Jesus loves to answer prayer; 
He Himself has bid thee pray, 
Therefore will not say thee nay. 

"Thou art coming to a King; 
Large petitions with thee bring; 
For His grace and power are such 
None can ever ask too much." — John Newton. 

"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not 
pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your 
tasks. Then the doing of your work will be no miracle, but you shall 
be a miracle." — Phillips Brooks. 

"The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy 
That day; I wondered HOW! 
A plowman, singing at his work, had prayed, 
'Lord, help them now.' 

"Away in foreign lands they wondered HOW 
Their single word had power! 
At home the Christians, two or three, had met 

To pray an hour." — Bible Readers' Calendar. 

"When there falls upon us a spirit of prayer to match the spirit of 
enterprise, then will the dreams of patriarchs and prophets come to 
pass and our country and the world lie fair and peaceful under the 
gospel light." — Charles L. Thompson. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Investment in Intercession. 

By teaching, exhortation, and example our Savior 
gives intercession a prominent place in the work of 
building His Kingdom among men. He taught that 
"Men ought always to pray and not to faint." The 
prayer He gave for the use of His disciples is a prayer 
that embodies a petition for the coming of His Kingdom. 
He taught them that the need of workers for the building 
of His Kingdom in the world-field was to be met by 
prayer, and exhorted them to pray to that end. We 
know He prayed for His disciples. Just what entered 
into His prayers when He spent nights in the solitude 
of the mountain, we can not know. We can hardly be 
far wrong, however, if we credit to Him on these oc- 
casions earnest petitions for His disciples and for the 
establishment of His Kingdom in the world. His appeal 
to Jerusalem and His prayer in Gethsemane show 
clearly the spirit with which He viewed human need 
and sought to supply it. Probably His valedictory 
prayer, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the 
Gospel of St. John, gives us a safe suggestion of the 
subjects of Christ's prayer life. That He prayed much 
we must believe. That His disciples were ever before 
His mind and on His heart we can not doubt, nor can 
we doubt that He ever saw them related to the great 
problem of establishing His Kingdom, and prayed not 
once alone, but again and again, "For all who might 
believe on Him through their words." That He only 

141 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

once reached such a point in earnestness in prayer that 
"He was in an agony while He prayed" is not probable. 
Before Jesus invested His very life in the work of es- 
tablishing His Kingdom, He had made an investment 
in intercession, the extent and real meaning of which 
we can not possibly even estimate. While we can only 
deal with the earth side of such a subject as this, we 
may note, in passing, that the agonizing intercession of 
the Son of God has not been confined to His brief life 
on earth, for "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." 
fff The point we wish to emphasize here is that the dis- 
ciples of Jesus were expected to enter into the inter- 
cessory work, and to show that intercession has had a 
large place in the Church of Christ and has been the 
precedent of great movements and the secret of their 
power. 

Doctor John R. Mott, in "The Evangelization of 
the World in this Generation," says: "Prayer had a 
very prominent place in the Early Church, not only as 
a means of promoting spiritual life, but also as a force 
to be used on behalf of the work of evangelization. The 
mighty display of power at Pentecost was ushered in 
by prayer. Workers were appointed only after prayer. 
When they were to be sent forth, the Church assembled 
for special prayer. The great foreign mission movement 
was inaugurated in prayer. If persecutions came, the 
Christians met to pray. One of the two reasons for 
choosing deacons was that the apostles — the leaders of 
the Church — might give themselves to prayer. The 
more carefully the subject is studied, the more apparent 
it becomes that what was accomplished in the apostolic 
age was largely due to the constant employment of the 
hidden and omnipotent force of prayer." 

The early records of the Church give a clear picture 
142 



INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 

of a praying Church. The company awaiting the ful- 
fillment of the promise of the Father "with one accord 
continued steadfastly in prayer." When the secular 
side of Church work pressed so heavily as to encroach 
seriously on their time, the apostles asked for relief 
from that work; and "We," said they, "will continue 
steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the Word." 
Stephen used his last breath in petitions for his slayers, 
and Peter sought the housetop to pray. The dead were 
raised up by prayer, and it was " When they had prayed, 
the place was shaken wherein they were gathered; and 
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." We remem- 
ber that Peter's deliverance from prison occurred while 
"prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God 
for him." It was with prayer by the Church at Antioch 
that Barnabas and Saul were sent forth on their great 
mission to the regions beyond. Paul and Silas prayed 
in the prison at Philippi until their bonds were loosened 
and the prison doors stood open. We read how Paul 
prayed with the brethren at Ephesus, and for the 
restoration of the father of Publius at Melita. There is 
enough on record to warrant the conviction that the 
Church of post-apostolic, as well as that of apostolic, 
days was a Church of prayer. 

Beyond the recorded history in the Acts of the 
Apostles, we have in the various apostolic letters in the 
New Testament the clear evidence in statement and in 
exhortation that reliance was placed on prayer to bring 
strength, wisdom, and grace for the conflict in which 
Christian disciples were engaged. It would be interest- 
ing to trace, if we had space, the history showing how, 
in the times that have tried men's souls, the persecuted 
and oppressed have prayed. The periods of great per- 
secution from which the Church has so often and so 

143 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

grievously suffered have, without doubt, been seasons 
when prayer was made night and day unto God. There 
were places for the gathering together of the Christians 
for prayer. For such meetings the deepest and darkest 
caves and the most hidden recesses of the forest were 
chosen. In such places they met God, and got new 
impulse for the terrible experiences through which they 
were compelled to pass. Relying on His aid, they 
marched straight forward to death itself. Hearts were 
not steeled for the Christian warfare, when that warfare 
was unto death, except by a vision of the risen Christ. 
Faces were not illumined by a divine light when dis- 
ciples entered the arena to combat with wild beasts, or 
marched to the stake, except at the Throne of Grace 
and by the glory of the presence of Him who sat thereon. 
In many — very many — cases prayer for their enemies, 
prayer that the Church might stand the test, prayer 
for the triumph of the Kingdom did not cease until the 
tongue was silenced by death. 

Through all the history of the Church the greatest 
weapon for aggressive warfare, the most important 
means man has employed for his own equipment for 
victorious living and triumphant warfare, has been the 
prayer of faith. The life of deeds is an open book to be 
read of all, but the underlying life of intercession is a 
closed book for the most part. This book has, however, 
been opened often enough and wide enough at times so 
we can not doubt that the record of acts that have en- 
riched the world has depended on the earnest, constant, 
believing waiting upon God. 

For our present purpose it will suffice to trace this 
subject in connection with great movements that began 
in a meager way in the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and advanced until they culminated in the great 

144 



INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 

work of the nineteenth. The place prayer occupied in 
the life of Jesus and His disciples of the Early Church, 
and its evident influence during the great advance of the 
past two centuries, may safely be taken as an index to 
its place in all the intermediate periods; and we may 
conclude that much intercession characterized the 
periods of great advance and a lack of prayer those of 
decline in the Church. 

In 1723 there appeared a book, "History of the 
Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of 
Paganism." In it the author, Robert Miller, a Presby- 
terian minister in Paisley, urged prayer as the first of 
nine means he advocated for the conversion of the 
heathen world. The same thought came to the front in 
revivals of considerable power that prevailed during 
the next two decades. Growing out of such beginnings 
came the scheme for a "Prayer Concert," described as a 
"Concert to promote more abundant application to a 
duty that is perpetually binding — prayer that our God's 
Kingdom may come, joined with praises." The scheme 
provided that special prayer should be offered every 
Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and on the first 
Tuesday of every quarter. The observance of this con- 
cert of prayer spread through the British Isles, and in 
1876 Christians in North America were asked to join 
in it for a period of seven years. 

Coming down to later times, we read of a memorable 
day of prayer and fellowship at Hernhut on the tenth of 
February, 1728. It was there that, amid praise and 
prayer and a consideration of God's Word, that the 
impulse was generated "to venture something real for 
God." It was on the next day that twenty-six brethren 
covenanted together to hold themselves in readiness for 
foreign service if the call should come to them. 
10 145 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

It was Whitefield who led the way, as early as 1744, 
in the setting apart of special hours of prayer "for the 
outpouring of the Divine Spirit upon all Christian 
Churches, and over the whole inhabited earth." In a 
meeting of Baptist Churches at Nottingham in 1784, "It 
was unanimously agreed to solemnly exhort all their 
Churches heartily and perseveringly in prayer to God 
on the first Monday of every calendar month and at 
the same hour." The plan drawn up included the 
spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the 
habitable globe as one object of prayer. 

William Carey, under the impulse of his wonderful 
missionary enthusiasm, aroused his Church to pray for 
the spread of God's Kingdom. How much their pray- 
ing may have had to do with subsequent results we 
can not know, but one of the congregation remarked, 
"We have been praying for the spread of Christ's 
Kingdom among the heathen, and now God requires us 
to make the first sacrifice to accomplish it." 

The place of prayer as the secret of organized effort 
and of securing missionaries through the generating of 
the missionary spirit appears in the case of William 
Carey, just sketched, and in the case of the Hernhut 
colony. But let us come nearer to our own time and 
note the rise of the "Student Volunteer Missionary' 
Union." In 1872 an "Annual Concert of Prayer for 
Foreign Missions" was inaugurated. To that time there 
had been a great dearth of candidates for service in the 
foreign field. The demand from the field was great. 
Although the call from Asia and Africa was peculiarly 
urgent, there was a most inadequate response. Op- 
pressed by such a deplorable lack of missionary en- 
thusiasm, the Reformed Churches agreed to observe the 
last week of November every year as a period of inter- 

146 



INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 

cession. Notice subsequent events. In 1882 twelve 
students offered themselves voluntarily to the Free 
Church of Scotland for foreign service. Then a com- 
pany known as the "Cambridge Seven" went out to 
China. About the same time, at a Students' Conference 
at Mt. Hermon, Mass., 100 students signed the declara- 
tion, "I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to 
become a foreign missionary." In less than a decade 
following that event more than 3,000 volunteers were 
enrolled in over 500 colleges, and 800 in the foreign field 
stood to the credit of that movement before the first 
decade had closed. Yet another result appeared when 
the movement was organized for silent prayer in a great 
gathering of over 3,000 students and people in Liver- 
pool, and £1,391 was contributed to carry out the plan 
to extend the work among students in all lands. 

But those were the days of beginnings only. The 
work has extended and deepened until the problem of 
getting men and women enough to meet the call of the 
Church has yielded its place to another — that of secur- 
ing money to send them to the field and support them 
and their work. We must, however, remember that the 
call of the world-need is so broad to-day that the leaders 
are not echoing all that call to the Church, and that 
if they should do so, and the Church should provide the 
money for the work, it would again be necessary to pray 
to the Lord of the harvest to raise up more laborers for 
His harvest. That the concert of prayer for workers 
should cease, we do not believe; but that it needs a 
strong supplemental note in the Church to-day, we do 
believe, and that note that Christians everywhere may 
recognize the fact of their stewardship of the manifold 
wealth of God and be constrained to use it all with 
reference to His Kingdom and glory. The question 

147 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

rises again and again in many minds whether the tides 
of spiritual blessing the Church needs for its equipment 
for the struggle in all lands will ever reach their swell 
until the Owner of all earth's wealth is so fully recog- 
nized that the Church will no longer point men and 
women and children who cry for spiritual bread to the 
stones they have learned can not satisfy. How shall 
the Lord of the harvest get from the gold and silver and 
from the cattle of a thousand hills the resources needed 
to gather the whitening harvests in many lands? All 
that is needed is in the hands of those that bear His 
name and pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in Heaven." How shall the grasp of the 
hands that hold it be so loosened that it shall be true 
as it was when Moses appealed for offerings "for the 
work of the service of the sanctuary," that the people 
must be restrained from bringing because they "bring 
much more than enough for the service of the work?" 
We can surely not expect such results by appeals by 
men to men, even though the heart-breaking need of the 
peoples who sit in darkness be portrayed true to life. 
Surely we have learned that man's appeal must be voiced 
by the Spirit of the living God and given the needed 
urgency by Him. And so our appeal is a double one, 
and we must not overlook the one by which we secure 
the help and blessing of God. 

Hear John Hunt, when dying, pray, "Lord, bless 
Fiji! Save Fiji! Thou knowest my soul has loved 
Fiji! my heart has travailed in pain for Fiji!" And 
again, when death drew nearer, "Oh, let me pray once 
more for Fiji! Lord, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji! Save 
Fiji!" Look upon Livingstone in Central Africa, dead 
upon his knees; see the Savior teaching His disciples 
to "pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth lab- 

148 



INVESTMENT IN INTERCESSION. 

orers" and to say, "Thy Kingdom come;" notice the 
great missionary movements inaugurated with earnest 
intercession for guidance and see the victories won in a 
thousand historic fields over the powers of darkness 
while the Church has made her appeal unto God; hear 
the testimony of those who have led the militant hosts 
to conquest that "the victory is the Lord's" — a victory 
gained in response to prayer; yes, consider these and 
ten thousand other facts and incidents that have a place 
in the history of Christian conquest, and thank God 
that the Church has invested so much in intercession 
unto God. 



149 



PART II.— ACHIEVEMENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CHURCH. 



The Church Witnesses to the Fulfillment of Prophecy: 

" And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of 
the Lord's House shall be established in the top of the mountains, and 
shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it." 

— Isaiah. 



"O, where are kings and empires now 
Of old that went and came? 
But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 
A thousand years the same. 

"We mark her goodly battlements, 
And her foundations strong; 
We hear within the solemn voice 
Of her unending song. 

"Unshaken as eternal hills, 
Immovable she stands, 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 
A House not made with hands." 

— A. Cleveland Coxe. 

' City of God, how broad and far 

Outspread Thy walls sublime! 
The true Thy chartered freemen are, 

Of every age and clime. 

'One holy Church, one army strong, 

One steadfast high intent; 
One working band, one harvest song, 

One King omnipotent. 

'How purely hath Thy speech come down 

From man's primeval youth! 
How grandly hath Thine empire grown 

Of freedom, love, and truth! 

'How gleam Thy watchfires through the night 

With never-fainting ray ! 
How rise the towers, serene and bright, 

To meet the dawning day! 

[ In vain the surge's angry shock, 

In vain the drifting sands; 
Unharmed, upon the eternal Rock, 

The eternal city stands." — Samuel Johnson. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Church. 

Such an investment as we have outlined in the preceding 
pages should surely have large outcome. We believe 
that such is the case. A part of that outcome appears 
in the Church itself, as it stands as an institution among 
men. The Church must not in such a connection as 
this be considered merely in its numerical strength, ter- 
ritorial extent, or even its wealth and recognized posi- 
tion. It must also be judged by what it stands for and 
the influence it exerts. We can not, however, overlook 
the facts of wide extent, numerical strength, wealth, and 
position. From each of these standpoints the Church 
must be regarded as the greatest organization ever built 
up among men. Its borders have been extended until 
it touches all lands, and its touch has been so strong 
and beneficent that it has brought physical and intel- 
lectual freedom, as well as spiritual illumination. 

What is the present extent of the Church of Christ? 
The territorial extent of the Church has been already 
traced. A general survey, only, remains for us at this 
point. In some of its forms it is found on every con- 
tinent. In North America, the British Isles, and Con- 
tinental Europe Christianity is, in some of its many 
forms of Church organization, the prevailing faith. At 
the same time it has a large place in all the great coun- 
tries of Asia, in Australia, Africa, in South America, 
and in the isles of the sea. No other religion has taken 
so strong a hold upon the peoples of so many lands or 

153 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

extended so far territorially. In the countries men- 
tioned it is not limited to a corner, nor is it planted in a 
few centers only. It has a place in all the great re- 
ligious and commercial centers and has touched great 
masses of the peoples who live in towns and villages. 
It has placed its pickets in the most distant outposts of 
human life, and its skirmishing parties have blazed the 
way well-nigh everywhere for the great army of con- 
quest. 

The hosts of the Christian Church are well dis- 
tributed, also, for world-conquest. The lands are few 
that have not in some section felt the tread of the 
army of Christ. The great strategic centers that are 
not already occupied to some extent by the Christian 
Church are comparatively few. The fields unoccupied 
to-day are sectional rather than country-wide or con- 
tinental. The Church of Christ has now so nearly sur- 
rounded the Jericho strongholds of the Pagan and 
non-Christian faiths of the world that the hour has 
surely come for sounding the paean of faith and victory, 
and for marching straight forward to the assault of the 
whole opposing line. 

But what about the number of those who bear the 
name of Christ? The handful of the apostolic days has 
become a mighty host. The hundreds whom Christ saw 
gathered under His banner, and which speedily became 
thousands, have long since become millions and tens of 
millions; yea, even hundreds of millions! It is, perhaps, 
impossible to reach even approximate correctness as to 
the number of Christians in the world to-day. The 
reports range from 477,080,158 to 534,940,000. The 
same authorities vary in their estimates of the non- 
Christian population of the world from 952,602,041 to 
\0 11,55 0,641. Such figures for the strength of the 

154 



THE CHURCH. 

Christian Church are liable to be misleading. We note 
that, roughly speaking, these estimates give one Chris- 
tian out of every three of the population. Such a fact 
would give great satisfaction but for one consideration — 
namely, that the one in three enumeration represents 
nominal Christianity as well as that which is vital, and 
further, that the difference between the nominal and 
that which stands for transformation in character and in 
life is so marked that the question will arise whether that 
which must be labeled nominal should be counted as 
Christian at all. 

It is a painful fact that, judged by the standards of 
the Divine Word, whole Churches must be counted as 
nothing more than nominal, since rite and ceremony 
are allowed to take the place of vital religion, and the 
Great Head of the Church is dishonored by being given 
an unworthy, because degraded, place. With the elim- 
ination of such Churches as the Roman, Greek, and 
sister communions, we find ourselves with the Protestant 
Church. While rejoicing that here Christ is recognized 
and given His rightful place in theory, we are once more 
grieved, as the thought presses itself upon us, that many 
here enrolled are at the best Christians only in name. 

But what is the strength of the Protestant Churches 
of the world? Protestantism is credited with a numeri- 
cal strength, using the very lowest estimate, of 143,237,- 
625, or approximately one out of every ten of the world's 
population. This number seems small when compared 
with the figures we have quoted above as representing 
the numerical strength of the Christian Church. That 
this number are enrolled in Churches that exalt Christ 
is reason for rejoicing; but it is sad to think that the 
real army of conquest must be counted as smaller yet, 
though how much smaller, no one would attempt to 

155 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

say. We do wish, however, to put all possible emphasis 
on our deep conviction that the Gideon band remaining 
after all tests have been applied, and consequent de- 
ductions made, is fully equal, under the leadership of 
the Great Head of the Church, to the great task of the 
conquest of this world. 

The equipment of this army of conquest and its re- 
sources for the task must be taken into the account, 
and the resources and equipment, in so far as they are 
material or intellectual, may fairly be counted as a part 
of the outcome of the effort and toil of the past. What 
has the Church to her account at this beginning of the 
twentieth century? What is there held in trust by the 
great Christian Church in so-called earthly treasure, 
and what is there in the form of institutions and litera- 
ture that can be counted as in any degree a factor in 
the great work? 

The day has long since passed when the Church of 
Jesus Christ had any reason to count itself poor. In 
the massing of wealth through trade and manufacture, 
through discovery and invention, Christian nations have 
led the way. More than that, in those nations God has 
sent rain upon the righteous as well as upon the un- 
righteous and caused His sun to shine upon the good 
as well as upon the evil, and rain and sunshine have 
meant wealth. Again, the rewards of righteousness in 
this present life have not proved less from the stand- 
point of material gain than the wages of unrighteousness. 
Surely the Christian Church could not remain poor 
under such conditions. The wicked have again and 
again been seen to flourish like the green bay-tree, while 
many a righteous man has known the pressure of pov- 
erty; but, if the average could be struck, we believe 
the advantage would be found to be on the side of those 

156 



THE CHURCH. 

who have been loyal to Christ and to the principles of 
His Kingdom, just as it is in the case of Christian over 
non-Christian nations. 

But how can we get at the root of this matter? What 
has God placed in the hands of His followers to be used 
in trust for Himself and His glory? The world-phase of 
this question may be too large to attack as a whole. 
Suppose, therefore, we study a part, and take the 
United States as our subject. The following figures 
from the Census Report of 1906 are suggestive of the 
strength of Protestantism along different lines: 

Number of Protestants 20,287,742 

" " Organizations 195,618 

" Ministers of the Gospel 146,451 

" Sunday Schools 165,128 

" Officers and Teachers 1,564,821 

" Pupils 13,018,434 

" " Domestic or Home Missionaries ... . 19,118 

" " Foreign Missionaries 6,131 

" of Native Helpers in Foreign Fields . 31,303 

Church and Parsonage Property $1,079,438,431 

" in Foreign Fields. 26,196,084 

Contributed for Foreign Missions 8,655,981 

" Domestic Missions 33,781,752 

Such figures are suggestive of an organization that 
ought to be able to accomplish great things. Twenty 
millions and more of people banded together in the 
fellowship of the Church of Christ, accepting that 
wonderful declaration of faith called the Apostles' Creed, 
offering the Lord's Prayer in family circle and Church 
assembly, sharers in the hope of eternal life, possessors 
of an inheritance from their Lord and from those who 
have gone before them that has enriched them in life 
and possibilities beyond the power of the mind to con- 
ceive; in a word, twenty millions of people under a 

157 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

common banner, inspired by a common purpose, en- 
gaged in a common task — what should such a host not 
be able to accomplish? 

Note again that this host is working out from 195,- 
618 centers for organized work in these United States, 
that 146,451 chosen and trained workers direct the 
work, that more than one and a half million men and 
women are engaged in Sunday schools in training the 
young for righteous and useful living, that the property 
equipment is proportionately large, and ask what such 
a host with such a leadership and such equipment ought 
to accomplish. 

These figures, being so large in the aggregate, may 
at first create the conviction that the Church is doing 
marvelous things. But let us look farther into the 
question. We have already called attention to the fact 
that the Church has grown wealthy with the increase 
of the wealth of the country. The wealth of the United 
States, according to the latest estimate, is $130,000,000,- 
000. As the Protestants of America number about one 
out of five of the population, it may be safe to conclude 
that they control one-fifth of the wealth of the country, 
or the large amount of $26,000,000,000. 

A study, too, of the figures given above that rep- 
resent property valuation and the organized effort put 
forth for the young will surely give added emphasis to 
the greatness of the organization known as the Church 
of Christ. But in this study of the Church we have 
had the organization in one land only before us, and that 
land one that embraces only about one-seventh of the 
entire membership of the Protestant Church. While it 
would not be safe to multiply all the resources, equip- 
ment, and organized effort of the American Church by 
seven to determine the real strength of the whole Church 

158 



THE CHURCH. 

in these respects, we can readily see that the whole 
organization is great not only in numerical strength, but 
also in its organized effort and its resources and equip- 
ment. 

The sketch already given of the wide distribution of 
the Church through well-nigh all lands, its controlling 
power in several countries, its beneficent influence in 
many more — these facts serve to emphasize the point 
we strongly stress here, namely, that the Church of 
Jesus Christ as it stands to-day in the world is a feature 
of the outcome of the Christian propaganda that stamps 
the world movement as mighty in its accomplishment. 

The subject might be followed farther, and the 
organization of the Church for its world program might 
be traced. Consider that the Protestant Church to-day 
has no less than 377 missionary societies that are select- 
ing, appointing, and sending out missionaries to preach 
the gospel to every creature. Note, too, that there are 
163 societies auxiliary to those mission boards and that 
303 lesser organizations co-operate with them by col- 
lecting funds. Still other organizations, in the form of 
committee and auxiliary collecting agencies, to the 
number of 130 aid in the work. To reach the sum total 
of these organized agencies in the world movement, 22 
independent organizations must be added, and we have 
in the aggregate no less than 995. 

With one other point this section must be closed — 
the Church is great in the character and spirit of its 
membership. The world movement has been directed 
to the building of noble character and the inspiring of a 
spirit not of this world. Faulty as the Church may be, 
who can deny that its accomplishments mark a peculiar 
greatness and stamp it as a worthy outcome of the 
Christian propaganda? Grander than noble temples, of 

159 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

larger import than numerical strength, and of greater 
promise than any earthly equipment or human agencies 
is the spirit that sends heavenward the song: 

"I love Thy Kingdom, Lord, 
The house of Thine abode; 
The Church our blest Redeemer saved 
With His own precious blood. 

"I love Thy Church, O God. 
Her walls before Thee stand, 
Dear as the apple of Thine eye. 
And graven on Thy hand. 

" For her my tears shall fall, 
For her my prayers ascend; 
To her my cares and toils be given 
Till toils and cares shall end. 

" Beyond my highest joy 

I prize her heavenly ways, 
Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 
Her hymns of love and praise. 

"Sure as Thy truth shall last, 
To Zion shall be given 
The brightest glories earth can yield, 
And brighter bliss of Heaven." 

Who can doubt that a great multitude in all the 
earth is to-day singing from the heart the above beauti- 
ful and expressive hymn of Timothy D wight? Recog- 
nizing this spirit in the Church, the conviction is regis- 
tered that it stands to-day as a marvelous outcome of 
the Christian movement. 



160 



CHAPTER II. 
OPENING UP THE WORLD. 



Christianity's World-Program Demands an Open World: 

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole cre- 
ation." — Jesus Christ. 

"Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation 

That God, in whom they live and move, is love: 
Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation, 
And died on earth that man might live above." 

— Mary A. Thomson. 
U 



"I view the end of the geographical feat as the beginning of the 
missionary enterprise." — David Livingstone. 

"Missionary enterprise comes next to exploration; in some regions 
accompanying it, and in others preceding it. It is moved by a dif- 
ferent spirit and by a different aim from geographical or scientific 
curiosity. The action of missionary effort in opening up the continent 
(Africa) at many widely different points must not, in fairness, be over- 
looked." — Stewart, in "Dawn in the Dark Continent" 

"There are a few great travelers. But Doctor Livingstone stood 
alone as the great missionary-traveler, the bringer-in of the civilization; 
or rather the pioneer of civilization — he that cometh before to races 
lying in darkness." — Florence Nightingale to Miss Livingstone, when her 
father's death was feared. 

"The moral element and missionary aim in Livingstone's work 
have been by far the most powerful factors in the production of real 
and lasting benefit to the hapless tribes of one-half of the forlorn con- 
tinent " — Stewart, in "Dawn in the Dark Continent." 



CHAPTER II. 

Opening Up the World. 

All explorers are not missionary in spirit, nor are all 
missionaries in any practical sense explorers. There has, 
however, been a by no means small number of mission- 
aries who have been at the same time explorers and 
whose work in that direction has ministered to com- 
merce, science, and general knowledge to such a degree 
that humanity counts itself doubly their debtors. It is 
only possible here to call attention to a few such men, 
and the work they did as an index to its character, but 
by no means to its extent and full value. 

North America, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific 
are sufficient to show how the world evangelization move- 
ment has had a part in opening up the world, and will 
perhaps best illustrate the fact. We must recognize 
that there are different motives underlying and prompt- 
ing the effort to open up the world to the knowledge and 
use of civilized nations. The desire for gain through 
trade, for scientific investigation, for bettering the con- 
ditions of people who are hidden away in their unknown 
lands, for the discovery of new sources of wealth in 
natural resources, and sometimes, perhaps, the spirit of 
pure adventure — all these have pushed men out to seek 
new lands and to ascertain their possibilities. We claim 
that, among the forces that have made for an open 
world, Christianity, with its spirit of world-conquest for 
Christ, has played a by no means inconspicuous part. 
We have no desire to bring it into comparison with other 

163 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

agencies at work in the same field and to claim for it the 
first place. To substantiate its claim to a worthy place 
in this work is all we wish. 

The history of the opening up of the countries named 
above furnishes abundant proof that obedience to the 
Great Commission has meant a marked widening of 
human knowledge of lands and peoples, and their his- 
tory is generally known. 

North America owes its opening up to the knowledge 
of the world, and to civilization and commerce, to no 
small degree to men who were thrust out by the desire 
to make Christ known. This fact appears in the names 
borne by many rivers, lakes, and sections of countries. 
The list of such names is so long, and the extent of the 
country where they are found so great, that the service 
rendered by missionary discoverers in North America 
can never be questioned. We can not go into the his- 
tory, and it is too well-known to require any elaborate 
treatment here. Suffice it to say that before traders, or 
seekers for gold, or scientists, or mere adventurers 
traversed the wide stretches of the great lake and river 
systems which formed the hunting and fishing scenes 
of the American Indian, the advance agents of a Chris- 
tian civilization had braved the dangers of the wilder- 
ness. It is not easy to give the proper place to these 
men, but that they helped forward the work of opening 
up new avenues for trade and for a beneficent civiliza- 
tion none can question. 

Turning to Africa and the South Sea Islands, a dif- 
ferent phase of the same question appears. The men 
who led the way were of broader vision and deeper pur- 
pose than the earlier explorers of North America. They 
represented a later date and a more advanced civiliza- 
tion. The Church they represented was Protestant, and 

164 



OPENING UP THE WORLD. 

not Roman Catholic. Great names appear here that 
are associated with movements that have led to great 
and varied results. 

In 1837 the Church Missionary Society in England 
sent a young man named Ludwig Krapf to Africa. Hav- 
ing failed in his effort to settle in Abyssinia, Krapf went 
to Mombasa in 1844, where he was joined by two other 
young men, Rebmann and Ehrhardt, and with them 
made repeated journeys into the interior. As the results 
of these journeys, Rebmann and Ehrhardt furnished a 
map of Interior Africa to the Royal Geographical Society 
in London. While their map had many inaccuracies, 
its revelations of Africa's possibilities aroused the scien- 
tific world. As the result Burton, Speke, and Grant 
went forth. And then came Livingstone's remarkable 
career of discovery. 

Livingstone's heart was aflame with desire for Africa's 
redemption and with a determination to open up the 
Dark Continent to commerce and Christianity. He 
traveled twenty-nine thousand miles in Africa, and 
added to the known part of the globe about a million 
square miles. He discovered Lakes 'Ngami, Shirwa, 
Nyassa, Moero, and Bangweolo, the Upper Zambesi 
and many other rivers, and the Victoria Falls. He was 
the first European to travel the whole length of Lake 
Tangianyiki, and traversed the vast water-shed near 
Lake Bangweolo. 

Here, too, we find Vanderkemp, Moffat, Mackay, 
Hannington, Grenfell, Stewart, Chalmers, and many 
others who helped in the exploration of these lands. 
What did these missionaries accomplish in this direc- 
tion? They prepared the way, as Livingstone definitely 
planned, for commerce and for the spread of the Christian 
faith. They, as we shall see later, served the cause of 

165 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

science and extended the bounds of the known areas of 
the earth, bringing unknown races under the influence of 
a Christian civilization. The fact that some results of 
their labors were in some cases incidental, rather than 
the prime object sought, merely enhances the value of 
missionary work. If the missionary spirit drives men 
out to find races unknown, and thus leads to the open- 
ing of wider areas to add their share to commerce and 
to the world's stock of general and scientific knowledge, 
then the world movement of the Christian faith has a 
right to claim a recognition of its service, and men of 
fairness will gladly admit the claim. 

Such is the merest suggestion of the service Chris- 
tianity has rendered in this direction. Missionary effort 
has led to similar results in most mission lands. It has 
never sought to open up new lands as the end of its 
efforts, but as a means to the end actually sought — the 
finding of races who need the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
with a view to make known to them the great salvation. 
The lure of the unknown — not in lands and material 
treasures, not in science, but in men and women con- 
cerning whom Jesus spoke when He gave a commission 
that took in all peoples everywhere — such is the lure 
that has led missionaries out into unknown lands. Here 
is the chief glory of the Christian movement — that man 
is ever the object sought, and that he is sought out with 
a heart filled with love and aflame with desire for his 
highest good. It is a lesser glory we claim for the world 
movement of the Church of Christ when we ask for a 
recognition of valuable results achieved along other 
lines. 



166 



CHAPTER III. 
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 



Commercial and Industrial Advance Mark the Course of the Christian 
Movement: 
"I look upon the Christian missionary as a pioneer of commercial 
enterprise." — Hugh Mason, M. P. 

"American missionaries are doing more for the industrial develop- 
ment of the Indian Empire than the government itself." — Sir Muncher- 
jee Bharnagree a Parsee M. P. 



"We find that our very commerce in China is based upon th« 
missionary. He precedes us into the interior, and becomes the means 
of our communication with the natives." — A wealthy English merchant 
of Shanghai, reported by Bishop E. R. Hendrix. 

"Commercially speaking the missionaries are the advance agents 
for American commercial enterprises, and if business men only under- 
stood this matter they would assist rather than discourage evangelistic 
work in the East." — The Hon. F. S. Stratton, formerly Collector of the 
Port of San Francisco, after a study of commercial questions in China, 
Japan, and the Philippine Islands. 

" The missionaries have penetrated far into the heart of the country 
and have invariably been the frontiersmen for trade and commerce." 
— Sir Chentrung Liang Cheng, former Chinese minister to the United 
States. 

"Before missionaries went to the Pacific Islands there was not, 
nor could there be, any commerce, on account of the savage character 
of the natives, although the natives were not always the first offenders. 
Now foreign commerce with these islands amounts to more than twenty 
million dollars annually. Then the shipwrecked crews of the navi- 
gator's or whaler's ships were killed and eaten; now shipwrecked 
mariners are kindly and hospitably treated, and taken to the nearest 
port frequented by foreign vessels." — Rev. John Liggins, writing a 
quarter of a century ago. 

"I have never yet met with a single man or woman, or with a 
single people, that your civilization, without Christianity, has civilized. 
For God's sake, let it be done at once. Gospel and commerce; but 
remember this, it must be the gospel first. Wherever there has been 
the slightest spark of civilization in the Southern Seas, it has been 
where the gospel has been preached; and wherever you find in the 
Island of New Guinea a friendly people, or a people that will welcome 
you there, it is where the missionaries of the Cross have been preaching 
Christ. Civilization! The rampart can only be stormed by those who 
carry the Cross." — The Rev. James Chalmers, "tfie Apostle of New 
Guinea." 



CHAPTER III. 

Commerce and Industries. 

1. Commerce. 

David Livingstone, in speaking to the students in 
Cambridge University in 1857, said, "I go back to 
Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and 
Christianity; do you carry out the work which I have 
begun — I leave it with you." These words suggest that 
there is an intimate relation between the Christian 
propaganda and the spread and growth of commerce. 
It would be too much to say that commerce always 
waits upon Christianity. But it is not too much to 
assert that Christianity has ofttimes blazed the way for 
commerce, and further, that it has ever been its hand- 
maid. That the opening up of nations to commerce is 
a part of the regular program of the Church is not true, 
but that such a result is sure to follow is a safe state- 
ment. 

There are four ways in which commerce has been 
furthered by the advance of the Church. First, new 
countries have been opened by Christian missions, and, 
by the establishing of a higher civilization and making 
the people more efficient producers and giving them a 
broader horizon, new demands have been created and 
new supplies produced. Second, Christianity has im- 
parted to barbarous people higher moral principles and 
made it possible to carry on trade with them in safety. 
Third, commerce waits on education and enlightenment, 

169 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and Protestant Christianity is«the greatest force in the 
world to-day in bringing about these results. Fourth, 
manual labor has been exalted and dignified and fru- 
gality and thrift encouraged. 

An extended and elaborate study of this subject is 
not possible here, but important and suggestive facts 
are recorded. That new countries have been opened 
up to civilization and commerce is matter of history. 
David Livingstone was a missionary in every fiber of 
his being. It was the love of Christ that constrained 
him to go to Africa, and yet the commercial world owes 
him a debt of gratitude for the wide territory he opened 
up to the world's trade. The trade and exchange of 
articles by barbarous peoples was limited, as a rule, to 
the immediate neighborhood where they lived and to 
the simplest things in use in daily life. It was circum- 
scribed in every way, for the man himself was living a 
narrow life in every respect. 

Thus it has ever been with barbarous peoples. When, 
however, the Christian has entered, a change has taken 
place. The loin cloth has very soon come to be re- 
garded as insufficient, and the simple mud cooking ves- 
sels have seemed crude and ill-adapted; a windowless 
hut that satisfied the barbarian does not satisfy the 
Christian; the rude and crude tools and implements 
used for centuries in the tribe can not now serve the 
thought of the man who has a new horizon. Better and 
swifter modes of travel seem necessary. But Christianity 
always broadens peoples it touches by education, and 
new needs are found. In such ways a market is created 
by Christianity for cloth, cooking vessels, dishes of all 
sorts, household furniture, tools of all kinds, and farm 
machinery, paper, pens, pencils, and ink, the bicycle, 
motorcar, and railway. Inventive and constructive 

170 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

talent also is developed, and production becomes more 
elaborate and extended, keeping pace, to some good 
degree, with the demand created — and so commerce in 
its twofold aspect is created. 

It may be objected to this line of thought that we 
are giving credit to Christianity that belongs to men 
who in the interests of commerce push out into all the 
earth and extend trade. It may be further urged that 
Christianity does not create the demand, but that the 
demand is naturally realized when articles are shown 
and their uses explained. The truth is, however, that 
new ideals and a new outlook on life and a new spirit 
are needed as a basis for a permanent change in condi- 
tions of life that will assure a permanent demand such 
as must exist in order to make live commercial condi- 
tions. Christianity has done this among the most bar- 
barous and degraded of peoples. Hear the testimony of 
the late Doctor Grenfell, of the Baptist Mission on the 
Congo: "Tools are not bought because no one has 
taught the people their use, and the old-style of tem- 
porary hut remains in which the appointments and 
furniture of civilization would be absurdly out-of-place, 
even if there were any desire to possess them. Nor 
does native energy, as a rule, look beyond immediate 
and pressing wants, and thus the fine wares of com- 
merce possess little or no attraction. Trade lags, and 
the old times, with their simple wants and primitive 
conditions, drag themselves along from generation to 
generation." 

In South Africa trade was begun under missionary 
influence. Notice in this connection the testimony of 
Doctor Moffat, given in 1870: "In former times the 
natives could not be prevailed upon to buy anything 
from traders in the shape of merchandise — not even so 

171 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

much as a pocket-handkerchief. Such articles could not 
be disposed of, as the natives were not enlightened 
sufficiently to appreciate anything like that. If they 
did buy, it would be only a few trinkets, or some beads; 
but nothing of a substantial character was ever bought. 
It is not so now, however, for no less than sixty thousand 
pounds' worth of British manufactures pass yearly into 
the hands of the native tribes near and about Kuru- 
man." 

It will hardly be questioned that Christianity has 
raised barbarous peoples to a higher moral tone, so that 
trade with them has been placed on a safer basis. Back 
of commercial life there must be commercial integrity. 
Such integrity may be found where no higher principle 
has been accepted than "Honesty is the best policy;" 
but real Christian principle is a safer corner-stone. 

People whose life is merely provincial, whose thought 
is narrow, and whose entire purpose in life is to meet 
the demands of the physical are not the ones who build 
up commerce with those far-distant and gain a place 
for themselves in the commercial world. If commerce 
may claim to break up provincialism and narrowness, 
it must be admitted that its work will be slow and beset 
by many difficulties, unless some educative, transform- 
ing, and arousing power shall prepare the people to 
appreciate what commerce has to offer. Those who have 
lived among Oriental peoples have seen the practical 
side of this statement. In India the stamp of petrifica- 
tion is on everything. The hand that would change 
what has been is sacrilegious. The wisdom of the past 
must not be challenged by changing to a single iota any 
part of its inheritance. Not life, but stagnation, is the 
prominent characteristic of the people. Unprogressive- 
ness stamps every pursuit and every phase of life. The 

172 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

man who gets an advanced idea is a trembler of his 
lethargic Israel. To build up trade with such a people, 
more is needed than the presentation to them of articles 
of trade and a declaration, or even demonstration, of 
their usefulness. The primitive plow and drill in farm 
machinery, the articles used instead of the ax and hoe, 
or the awkward implements in the various trades and 
handicrafts — these all have a large place in the affection 
of the Hindu, and no ordinary dynamic will loosen his 
heartstrings enough to assure his purchase of imple- 
ments better adapted to his needs. Commerce may be 
built up against such odds, but growth will be slow and 
the day of large profits long delayed. Here, we believe, 
is where Christianity re-enforces commerce by provid- 
ing the needed dynamic. Is education needed? Chris- 
tianity makes a practical education a part of its program. 
Is a practical view of life and its activities needed? 
Christianity has a peculiar power to illuminate the 
practical problems of life and duty. Is a broader world- 
vision needed? There is no influence so potent as the 
Word of God with its world program. Perhaps it was 
in view of such considerations that Henry Venn, secre- 
tary of the Church Missionary Society, about fifty years 
ago estimated that "when a missionary had been abroad 
twenty years, he was worth ten thousand pounds a year 
to British commerce." 

Turn to Africa and note that where Livingstone led 
the way, English, Scotch, Continental, and American 
missions have been established and have aided in the 
great double work for which he went to prepare the way. 
But where Livingstone and Mackay and Moffat and 
Grenfell and Bishop Mackenzie advanced by weary 
stages on foot, or carried by bearers, there are now 
thousands of miles of railway. Back of the Uganda 

173 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Railway system is the mission of that land, and Mackay 
was the first to suggest it. 

Doctor James Dennis says, in an address on "Com- 
merce and Missions :" "The commercial prospects of 
that portion (Uganda) of Central Africa and its large 
outlying regions have surely been greatly improved by 
the fact that the missionary type of civilization was 
first introduced, and, with its enlightening and educa- 
ting influences, has gained a powerful hold on the people. 
This fact will do much to safeguard the best interests 
of commerce." 

But while the story of the commercial development 
of Uganda is closely bound up with the history of Chris- 
tian missions, the same is true of other parts of Africa, 
of the South Sea Islands, and of all countries where 
missions have flourished. Note the extent of commerce 
with lands that had no part in the commercial life of 
the world before the onward march of Christianity. 

An incomplete report of the commerce of the African 
Continent in 1901 gave the gross annual value of the 
commerce as $700,000,000, of which $429,000,000 were 
imports. 

The trade of the following islands and lands that 
have been in a marked degree debtors to Christianity is 
very suggestive. The figures are for 1910, and are given 
in pounds sterling, except in the case of Japan: 

Imports. Exports. 

Fiji £828,029 £1,005,880 

Madagascar 1,337,477 1,817,531 

New Hebrides 53,000 43,000 

Friendly Islands 213,309 245,946 

Algeria 22,607,000 20,537,000 

Japan Yen 464,233,808 Yen 458,428,996 



174 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

We sum up the case and close this discussion with 
the following queries by Doctor James Dennis in his 
comprehensive work, "Christian Missions and Social 
Progress:" "Have missions been influential to any ex- 
tent in opening avenues for commerce and in promoting 
its activities? Have they ministered to its moral tone, 
and taught it lessons in the school of integrity? Have 
they helped to broaden the world's markets, to swell 
the ranks of both the consumer and the producer, and 
to enlarge the range of both supply and demand? Is 
commerce historically indebted to missions, and has the 
past century greatly increased that indebtedness? May 
we regard the opportunity of international commerce 
as due in part to the co-operation of missions by reason 
of their ministrations— persuasive, illuminative, and in- 
structive^ — in removing hindrances to openings among 
native races, and in promoting an interchange of out- 
going and incoming commodities ?" 

His answer to these questions he summarizes thus: 
"Missions have proved helpful to commerce by their 
insistence upon moral standards, by their discipline in 
matters of good faith and moral rectitude, by their 
suggestions — at least among their own native constitu- 
encies as to improved financial methods — by their pro- 
motion of trade with the outer world, and by the stim- 
ulus they have given to the introduction of the con- 
veniences and facilities of modern civilization." 

2. Industries. 

A second line on which the world's resources are 
developed is that of the improvement of industrial con- 
ditions. Non-Christian lands everywhere present to the 
missionaries the sad picture of peoples whose toil, 
though it be severe, brings little return because the tools 

175 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

used are crude, the methods employed ill-adapted, and 
the toiler himself unskilled. In such lands the resources 
of every kind are but imperfectly developed, and hence 
the people live in poverty. He who seeks to benefit in 
the largest possible ways the peoples whom he serves in 
the gospel will, of necessity, seek to better their condi- 
tion by helping them to reap larger returns from their 
labor. The problem is different in different lands, vary- 
ing according to advancement already made and the 
existing conditions. In all lands where Christian mis- 
sions have been long established something is being done 
to develop the resources of the land and improve the 
conditions of the people by directing and encouraging, 
as well as by instructing them along the lines of their 
practical life and work. 

Apart from the above grounds for this department 
of mission work, industrial education and training are 
needed because of the influence they may be made to 
exert on character, on cultivating the habits of industry 
and frugality, and on the practical every-day life of the 
people by enlarging the sphere of their usefulness. 

We can not take space to even give a brief outline of 
all that has been attempted and what has been accom- 
plished, but will attempt to give some idea of the lines 
on which work has been done and the results gained in a 
part of the world-field. 

India on the one hand, and Africa, with the South 
Sea Islands, on the other, may be taken to illustrate 
conditions, need, and possibility in this direction. The 
South Sea Islands and Africa represent as low conditions 
of life and accomplishment as any field presents. The 
people were ignorant, unskilled, without ambition or 
plan for the future. Their lives were given to wars, 
feasting, hilarity, and idleness. Spending their lives 

176 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

surrounded by almost limitless resources, they left those 
resources untapped and lived almost on the plane of 
the beast of the field. What was needed by such a 
people under such conditions? 

Their first need, without doubt, was the gospel of 
Jesus Christ, which, in some mysterious way, can 
awaken to new life, create the ambition to be something 
and to do something, give a vision of possibilities hith- 
erto unknown, and prepare for guidance in new paths. 
The second need is that direction shall be given to 
them so that they may live a broader life by the use of 
all the resources of nature by which they are surrounded. 
Such work missionaries have sought to do. They have 
rightly taught the people to seek, first, the Kingdom of 
God and His righteousness, and have then sought to 
direct the new life and spirit generated in new channels — 
among which industrial training has been recognized as 
important. 

When Mackay went to Africa, he went equipped 
with tools and machinery for use in an industrial mis- 
sion. King Mtesa esteemed him highly because of his 
ability to work in iron and his skill in various handi- 
crafts. He was, without doubt, able to carry on his 
Christian work longer because of its industrial feature. 
The Scotch Mission at Blantyre is carried on altogether 
on the lines of education, with manual labor, and in- 
dustrial work and training. 

Bishop William Taylor gave the weight of his influ- 
ence to the development of this work, and Bishop J. C. 
Hartzell, on whom his episcopal mantle fell, has, to- 
gether with the missionary force of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in Africa, pushed on as vigorously as 
possible this important work. What is true of the mis- 
sions named is also true of other missions — American, 

12 177 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

English, Scotch, and German — that seek the redemp- 
tion of the Dark Continent and of the no less dark 
islands of the South Seas. 

The results of this work in Africa are too numerous 
and widespread to admit of enumeration here. Under 
such instruction — Christian and industrial — the African 
is being taught the very alphabet of industry and fru- 
gality, as well as lessons that mean a practical enlarge- 
ment of his sphere of labor and usefulness. In the 
New Hebrides, too, many have become efficient artisans, 
so that they build wagons and boats, as well as many 
other necessary and useful articles that require the skill 
and training for which they are indebted to Christianity. 
To go a step further, we note that in the West Indies 
and in parts of South America the spirit of thrift and a 
readiness to work has been aroused. The African 
Negroes of Jamaica have been advanced socially as well 
as religiously under the same kind of training, while 
from Terra del Fuego come similar reports. 

India, too, stands out prominently in this connec- 
tion, although the natural conditions were much dif- 
ferent. The missionary found in India higher types of 
men than his brother missionary found in Africa. He 
found people who had tools and implements for agri- 
culture and many of the handicrafts. He found also 
that some degree of skill had been developed along 
many lines, but also that tools and implements and 
skill were not adapted to the best results and that the 
returns for man's best effort were inadequate. The 
fields were cultivated, but according to methods and 
with implements of such a character that the returns 
were very meager. In carpentry, blacksmithing, and 
the more common and necessary handicrafts the same 

178 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

meager and imperfect results were gained, and for the 
same reasons. Another fact the missionary faced in- 
hered in the social system of the Hindus. Caste de- 
termined the nature of a man's life-work. And yet one 
other unfavorable fact was everywhere apparent — 
manual labor was in disrepute among those who had 
gained the slightest education. 

What was needed under the conditions sketched 
above? The great first need here was the gospel, as in 
every place where social, moral, and business conditions 
are to be radically changed. Where such conditions 
prevail, no great results can be worked out until a new 
vision has, to some degree at least, been given to the 
people. But, closely succeeding this new vision, there 
will naturally come the outlining of a better program 
and direction in carrying it out. The effort in this line 
has been quite widely applied, and the questions of im- 
portance now relate to the results that have been gained. 
Those results relate, first, to the character of the man 
himself; second, to his efficiency; third, to the enlarging 
of his sphere of usefulness; and fourth, to his temporal 
prosperity. Viewed from the standpoint of the Chris- 
tian propaganda, the results will be twofold: First, a 
contrast will be drawn between Christianity and all 
non-Christian faiths — a contrast that will mark its 
superiority; and second, the influence of those who 
have thus been benefited by this means will become 
more efficient witnesses for Christ. 

Another viewpoint is that of the State. What will 
the result to the State be? If there be beneficial results 
in the citizens, there can not fail to be benefit to the 
government. The advantage to the State will appear 
if we consider the relation of the citizen to the govern- 

179 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ment, and remember that his enlightenment, character, 
and prosperity are valuable assets to his community 
and to the government under which he lives. 

All that needs to be said in addition is this — that 
Christianity will gain an influence when its representa- 
tives show an interest in all phases of the life and work 
of the people it seeks to help, for no priest or teacher of 
any non-Christian faith will put his hand or give his 
thought to such a subject unless, perchance, he follows 
the example of the Christian leader, and in that case 
his service will soon be recognized as perfunctory. 

In this day when there is a tendency to organize all 
phases of effort, it is not strange that this department 
of missionary activity should be directed to some degree 
by special organizations. While these organizations 
are of comparatively recent origin, they have become 
quite numerous, and there seems to be a tendency to 
multiply them. These organizations have for the most 
part been the outcome of industrial work and conditions 
in individual missions, and their work has been carried 
on in connection with those missions. 

But apart from these special organizations, nearly 
all missionary societies count industrial training as one 
feature of their missionary effort and encourage such 
work to some good degree, so that the work now car- 
ried on is widespread in its extent and most varied in its 
character. In India, Ceylon, and Burma alone there 
are no less than one hundred and eighty-four centers of 
industrial work. 

To gather up the real results of a beneficial nature 
of this phase of effort would mean to go below the sur- 
face results and to study social changes wrought, as 
also those in the thought and character of the people. 

While compelled to omit other lands, so far as de- 
180 



COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES. 

tailed reference is concerned, and to be content with 
the above meager outline touching the lands we have 
been studying, emphasis is here placed once more on 
the fact that this feature has taken its place among 
recognized missionary agencies, and has established its 
right to be so regarded by showing results important 
and varied, as well as by its practical and far-reaching 
program for the future. To those who consider Chris- 
tianity's scheme of service narrow and unpractical, we 
commend this item of the program for careful con- 
sideration. To such as find no urgency in the appeal of 
the spiritual destitution of the great masses of the 
human race, we present the fact of physical deprivation 
due to the conditions outlined, and at the same time a 
program for relief, hoping that here may be found a 
need that shall be recognized as urgent and far-reaching 
enough to make a real appeal. 



181 



CHAPTER IV. 
LITERATURE. 



The Achievement in the World's Literatures has been Creative and En- 
riching: 
"Missionaries have contributed greatly to the culture of the ver- 
nacular languages, and many of them, as scholars, historians, sociolo- 
gists, or lexicographers, have held a high place in Oriental literature, and 
have written books of lasting fame and utility." — Sir Richard Temple, 
one-time Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Governor of Bombay, and Finance 
Minister of India, 



"Take Christ out of literature; take Christian theology out of 
literature; take Christian ideas and sentiments out of literature; take 
Christian history and institutions out of literature; take Christian 
charity and tenderness out of literature; take the Christian idea of 
immortality out of literature; and what vacuums will be produced! 
Whole volumes will disappear by thousands and by thousands of edi- 
tions. Entire chapters will be torn from numberless volumes, millions 
of pages will be mutilated by the remorseless scissors, and logical order 
and continuity will be turned into chaos. Whole shelves and entire 
alcoves in our libraries will be emptied. Christ is the greatest element 
in the world's literature." — Dr. Daniel Dorchester. 

In the year 1800 the Bible was available for only one-fifth of the 
world's population, and before the end of the nineteenth century only 
about one-tenth were deprived of the privilege of reading it in their 
own languages. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Literature. 

A study of the progress of Christianity can not over- 
look the literary results that have been reached. Even 
one's first thought will recognize that much has been 
done, for that first thought will give credit for great 
accomplishment in the line of Bible translation, publica- 
tion, and distribution. To this work will be added, on a 
moment's reflection, a large volume of Christian litera- 
ture in the form of books and tracts. Probably with 
such recognition of the literary results of Christianity's 
development and influence most people will stop. But 
while going thus far they may not get any adequate 
conception of the real extent of the work along those 
lines even, while the broader results — for there are such — 
will be entirely overlooked. The object of this chapter 
is twofold: First, to give some idea of the real extent 
of the work along the lines generally recognized; and 
second, to call attention to the broader field of Chris- 
tianity's influence in literature. 

It is not our purpose to consider the amount of labor 
put into this work, but simply the results. During the 
modern missionary period the Bible has been translated 
into 456 languages, and of these only 10 had been 
issued before the dawn of the nineteenth century. The 
whole number of languages into which the Bible has 
been translated from the first has approximated 500, 
but of these 40 are now obsolete. In the year 1910 the 

185 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Bible was in circulation in 452 living tongues. It is an 
absolute impossibility to get figures that will show how 
many copies have been issued, but a study of what has 
been done is suggestive. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society has issued since 1804 copies aggregating 175,- 
000,000 in 373 languages and dialects. The number 
now issued annually is over 5,500,000; the circulation, 
outside of Great Britain, is over 3,000,000 copies a year, 
and of these over two-thirds are circulated in foreign 
mission fields. 

The National Bible Society of Scotland has issued a 
total of about 20,000,000 copies, and the number issued 
annually now is almost 1,000,000, more than three- 
fifths of which are issued from foreign depots. 

The American Bible Society has issued about 75,- 
000,000 copies. The present annual issue closely ap- 
proximates 2,000,000, of which about two-thirds go to 
foreign fields. During the past twenty-five years this 
society has sent to foreign lands in cash and books for 
its foreign agents more than $3,000,000, and in cash to 
the various foreign missionary societies nearly $500,000. 
It has aided in translating, publishing, or circulating the 
Bible in more than one hundred languages and dialects. 

Thus these three societies have issued about 270,- 
000,000 copies of the Bible and are at present circulating 
annually about 8,500,000 copies. While these are the 
three largest societies, there are many smaller ones 
that have an aggregate annual issue of about 250,000. 

It is worthy of special notice that this work has been 
going forward by leaps and bounds during the past 
century, for in that century alone the Bible was trans- 
lated into 446 new languages and dialects. In one de- 
cade, 1882-1892, the Bible was given to the people of 
five new languages or dialects each year. The result 

186 



LITERATURE. 

of this work was that, whereas at the dawn of the cen- 
tury only one-fifth of the population of the globe had 
the Bible available in their own languages, before its 
close only one-tenth spoke languages into which the 
Bible had not been translated. 

Side by side with the above work another phase of 
the literary work has been prosecuted — namely, the 
providing of a Christian literature in all foreign mission 
fields as well as enlarging it in lands called Christian. 
We can only touch on what relates to the foreign fields. 
Religious tract societies and Christian literature soci- 
eties have sprung up as if by some magic touch and 
have been doing a work the extent of which in quantity 
may be fairly well appreciated but whose influence can 
not be measured. 

The Religious Tract Society, London, has been at 
work since 1799, and has put in circulation, in round 
numbers, 3,500,000,000 copies of tracts and books, while 
its present annual issue is about 53,750,000 copies. It 
now issues about 700 distinct works each year, of which 
about half are tracts. Its publications are issued in 232 
languages, dialects, and characters. Its contributions for 
foreign missions by grants of money and books, or even 
printing material, had up to 1899 averaged about $100 
a day for its entire existence, and aggregated $3,669,933. 

The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowl- 
edge, London, has since 1807 put in circulation 538,- 
810,490 copies of books and tracts, and now sends forth 
nearly 14,000,000 copies a year. The American Tract 
Society, New York, was organized in 1823. Its work 
has aggregated almost 500,000,000 copies of books and 
tracts, and of late years the annual circulation has been 
about 2,500,000 copies. It has aided the work in 153 
languages and dialects. Excluding periodicals, 8,176 

187 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

distinct publications stand to its credit, comprising 
36,780,726 volumes, and tracts to the number of 480,- 
500,000. 

In addition to these societies there are many smaller 
ones, while these great agencies carry on their work 
through large numbers of auxiliary societies in the for- 
eign fields. To mention just a few of these societies 
whose work takes a wider range: 

The Christian Literature Society of India carries on 
work from five great provincial centers in India, and 
one in Ceylon, and issues annually over 1,250,000 copies 
of Christian books, booklets, and pamphlets. The work 
of this society is duplicated in kind, but not in volume, 
in many other mission fields. These societies, however, 
take us beyond the range of our study of Bible transla- 
tion and religious tract publication, and we find our- 
selves in the broader field of general literature which is 
stamped with Christian thought and brings to the front 
Christian ideals. Christian missionaries have recognized 
the importance of providing for the students of non- 
Christian lands text-books that are calculated to instil 
proper moral and ethical principles and ideals. The 
teachings of Christ, as given in the Scriptures, being 
fundamental to the best type of character and life, the 
principles He taught are made the basis of the teaching 
of the young. These societies seek to further the end of 
morality and good government by incorporating Scrip- 
tural principles and truths in the text-books used in the 
schools. In addition, the whole life of the people is 
taken into account, and books and pamphlets are issued 
that call attention to reforms needed in the social and 
religious life of the people, and in relation to health, and, 
in fact, everything affecting family and village life. 
The real work accomplished can only be partially judged 

188 



LITERATURE. 

by such results as appear on the surface of the life and 
thought of the people. 

But the literary results of Christianity have gone 
even further. Still leaving to one side the great Chris- 
tian literature of Christian lands, we note the results 
abroad. While Christianity has gained converts from 
non-Christian populations that have had extensive lit- 
erature, and has then added thereto extensive strata 
that are Christian in substance and in tone, it has also 
made its way among those of non-Christian faiths whose 
languages can boast no literature, nor even the first step 
thereto — an alphabet. In such cases — and there are 
many — the languages have been reduced to writing, and 
in addition to the Bible a Christian literature has been 
created and school books prepared. It is claimed that 
one hundred and twenty spoken languages have been 
reduced to writing and provided with a Christian and 
educational literature. 

In foreign mission fields, too, periodical literatures, 
Christian in character, have been created. There were 
no less than 378 such publications when the latest 
statistics were compiled. According to those statistics, 
India leads the way with 148 publications, and Japan 
follows with 56, while China and Africa report 32 each. 
Other countries report as follows: South America, 23; 
Ceylon, 20; Mexico, 17; Burma, 8; while the West 
Indies, Turkey, and Madagascar report 6 each; Oceania, 
4; Malaysia, Korea, Greenland, and the missions in 
Canada, 3 each; Alaska, Persia, and Syria, 2 each; and 
Assam, Formosa, Palestine, Siam, and Bulgaria, 1 each. 
That the compiled statistics represent the whole work, 
one can hardly believe, but the figures are suggestive of 
widespread work along literary lines. 

To facilitate this literary work another agency has 
189 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

been employed — namely, publishing houses and presses 
under missionary direction. This department of effort 
has been made a feature of the work in nearly all lands, 
and the aggregate of the institutions reported is 159. 
The yearly issue of copies of books, booklets, and tracts 
has reached the large sum of almost 12,000,000, with 
nearly 400,000,000 pages, although the report is incom- 
plete at some points. 

The above will surely emphasize the fact that the 
outcome of recent missionary effort in the direction of 
building up literatures for the benefit of the nations has 
been very great. No more than mere mention can be 
made of the fact that helpful work has been done by 
the compilation of dictionaries, the production of gram- 
mars, and in some cases the writing of technical works. 
No slight additions have been made to the character 
and influence of these literatures by the work done in 
the line of hymnology. To go into these details would 
require too much space, and they are left with the 
mention. 

Thus far the subject has been outlined as it relates 
to the foreign mission field of the Church. Great, how- 
ever, as the literary outcome there has been, it is only 
a fraction of that which marks the work of the Church 
in all the lands it has touched and through all the cen- 
turies of its history. From the time that the apostolic 
writers, under divine inspiration, wrote for the coming 
ages, the Church has been building great literatures in 
many tongues. The literatures of Christian lands have 
become surprisingly large, and a Christian tinge char- 
acterizes them in almost every part. Poor, indeed, 
would the world's literatures of to-day be made if all 
the Christian elements were removed. Essayists, poets, 
orators have all found their loftiest themes along the 

190 



LITERATURE. 

lines of the Christian faith, while historians and novelists 
have drawn from the same source to illuminate their 
pages. The aggregate of the literatures that all non- 
Christian faiths have produced through all their history 
is small as compared with those that have grown up 
under the inspiring influence and fostering care of 
Christianity. All the sacred books of all the non-Chris- 
tian faiths combined are not as widely available, lin- 
guistically considered, as the Word of God, nor can they 
compare with it in either the aggregate of copies issued 
or annually distributed. All the non-Christian faiths 
combined can present but meager results in quantity or 
quality in what we call hymnology compared with 
Christianity. The same fact holds if other fields of 
literary production be searched. Christianity is rich in 
her literature, and with her riches she has been enrich- 
ing all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues. 



191 



CHAPTER V. 
SCIENCE. 



The Achievement of the Christian Church Embodies Scientific Work of 
Great Value: 
"Few are aware how much we owe them (the missionaries), both 
for their intelligent observation of facts and for their collection of 
specimens. We must look to them not a little for aid in our effort to 
advance future science." — Professor Agassiz. 

"Zoology, botany, and anthropology, and most of the other branches 
of scientific investigation, have been enriched by the researches of 
missionaries, who have enjoyed opportunities of collecting in new 
districts." — Sir Harry H. Johnston, traveler and scholar. 

13 



W. Douglad Machensie, M. A., in "Christianity and the Progress of 
Man," says: "The missionary has proved himself a man of wider 
interests than some sections of society have attributed to him. From 
all parts of the world his contributions to science are numerous and 
valuable, and in some cases have proved themselves of first-class im- 
portance. If the transactions of botanical, zoological, geological, 
archaeological, enthnological, philological, and geographical societies in 
Germany, Great Britain, and America were ransacked, they would be 
found to contain well-nigh innumerable contributions, in the form of 
memoranda, reports, and discussions, which have been sent by mis- 
sionaries from all over the world." 

The Smithsonian "Contributions to Knowledge" (Vol. XVII) says 
of Missionaries: "There is no class of men, whether viewed as scholars 
or philanthropists, who have earned a higher reputation. Their con- 
tributions to history, to ethnology, to philology, to geography, and to 
religious literature form an enduring monument to their fame." 



CHAPTER V. 

Science. 

No more is here attempted than to show that the world 
movement of the Christian Church has to its credit no 
inconsiderable achievement along scientific lines. A 
history of what has been accomplished in this direction 
by missionaries of the Cross would embrace many names 
and embody results both diversified and great. A few 
names only can be mentioned here, and details must be 
limited. One of the great names in this connection is 
that of William Carey. 

This great missionary, while doing a truly marvelous 
work in learning Oriental languages, translating the 
Bible into several of them, laying the foundations of a 
Christian literature in India, occupying a professor's 
chair in the Calcutta University, and doing the general 
work of a missionary, gave himself to the observation of 
plant-life. He established a large garden for the study 
of India flora. He was elected to membership in the 
Asiatic Society on account of the value of his contribu- 
tions concerning the natural history and botany of India. 
He was the founder of the Agricultural and Horticul- 
tural Society of India. 

The value of Carey's work may be judged by the 
following action of the Bengal Asiatic Society on his 
death: "The Asiatic Society can not note upon their 
proceedings the death of the Rev. W. Carey, D. D., so 
long an active member and an ornament of this institu- 
tion, distinguished alike for his high attainments in the 

195 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Oriental languages, for his eminent services in opening 
the stores of Indian literature to the knowledge of 
Europe, and for his extensive acquaintance with the 
sciences, the natural history and botany of this country, 
and his useful contribution on every hand towards the 
promotion of the objects of the Society, without placing 
on record this expression of their high sense of his 
value and merits as a scholar and a man of science, 
their esteem for the sterling and surpassing religious and 
moral excellencies of his character, and their sincere 
grief for his irreparable loss." 

Another great name in this connection is that of 
David Livingstone. It may not be generally known 
that Livingstone, in addition to the wonderful work he 
accomplished in opening up new territory embracing 
about one million square miles and dealing slavery a 
blow from which it could never recover, laid the scien- 
tific world under peculiarly heavy obligation to him. 
His investigations and the carefully recorded results 
covered a wide field. The sciences benefited are ge- 
ology, hydrography, botany, and zoology, so far as 
Africa was concerned. He also attempted to give an 
accurate idea of the form and structure of the African 
Continent. His work inspired respect in the scientific 
world. 

Of Livingstone's work Sir Bartle Frere wrote as fol- 
lows: "As a man of science, I am less competent to 
judge, for my knowledge of his work is, to a great extent, 
second-hand; but, derived as it is from observers like 
Sir Thomas Maclear and geographers like Arrowsmith, 
I believe him to be quite unequaled as a scientific trav- 
eler in the care and accuracy with which he observed. 
In other branches of science I had more opportunities 
of satisfying myself, and of knowing how keen and 

196 



SCIENCE. 

accurate was his observation, and how extensive his 
knowledge of everything connected with natural science." 

Two brothers, the Reverends J. T. and L. Halsey 
Gulick, did scientific work of no ordinary value while 
prosecuting their missionary work in the South Sea 
Islands. 

Without extending the list of special names, atten- 
tion is called to the general statements found on the 
introductory page of this section — statements that show 
the wide scope of scientific work done by missionaries, 
and also suggesting that many have contributed to the 
aggregate results. 

The science of anthropology has naturally gained 
more through missionary research than any other, for 
missionaries have not only come into close touch with 
well-nigh all races and peoples, but their touch has been 
sympathetic. They have of necessity had to do with 
the many-sided life of the people. Apart from brief 
reports they have furnished their mission boards, and 
the special contributions to periodical literature, mis- 
sionaries have written many books concerning the 
peoples among whom they have labored. These books 
treat of the vital things concerning the people, their 
customs, religious and social life, their physical condi- 
tion, and their religions and languages. 

In this connection, too, a further tribute to mis- 
sionaries for scientific work may be given. 

Mr. H. H. Johnstone, an African traveler, thus wrote 
in the nineteenth century, as far back as 1887: "In- 
directly, and almost unintentionally, missionary enter- 
prise has widely increased the bounds of our knowledge, 
and has sometimes been the means of conferring benefits 
on science, the value and extent of which itself was care- 
less to appreciate and compute. Huge is the debt 

197 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

which philologists owe to the labors of British mission- 
aries in Africa. 

" Zoology, botany, and anthropology, and most of the 
other branches of scientific investigation, have been en- 
riched by the researches of missionaries who have 
enjoyed unequaled opportunities of collecting in new 
districts." 

It is pleasant to record such facts as the above out of 
a great mass of testimony which of itself would make a 
volume. Such sidelights on the largely incidental results 
of missionary activities in this and other lines we have 
touched should lead those who have lightly discredited 
missionary work to revise to some degree, at least, their 
declared judgments. 



108 



CHAPTER VI. 
EDUCATION. 



Teaching had a Place in the Divine Program: 

"And He (Jesus) went round about the villages teaching." 

—Mark 6: 6. 

"And the things which thou hast heard from Me among many 
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to 
teach others also." — Apostle Paul. 



"The record of the work done by the first missionaries in India 
reads like an Eastern romance. They created a prose literature for 
Bengal; they established the modern method of popular education; 
they founded the present Protestant Indian Church; they gave the 
first impulse to the native press; they set up the first steam-engine in 
India; with its help they introduced the modern manufacture of paper 
on a large scale; in ten years they translated and printed the Bible, or 
parts thereof, in thirty-one languages. The main part of their funds 
they earned by their hands and heads. They built a college which 
still ranks among the most splendid educational edifices in India." — Sir 
William Hunter, author of the "Imperial Gazetteer of India." 

Doctor Cust, in " The Languages of Africa," speaks of missionaries 
as those "who, as it were, in the course of their striking hard on the 
anvil of evangelization, their own proper work, have emitted bright 
sparks of linguistic light, which have rendered luminous a region pre- 
viously shrouded in darkness, and these sparks have kindled a corre- 
sponding feeling of warmth in the hearts of great, and to them per- 
sonally unknown, scholars, working in their studies in Vienna, Berlin, 
or some German university — scholars who, alas! cared little for the 
object of the missionaries going forth, but rejoiced exceedingly at the 
wonderful, unexpected, epoch-making results of their quiet labors." 



CHAPTER VI. 

E d uc a t i o n . 

Vital Christianity has ever been awake to the im- 
portance of education, and its onward movement has 
meant intellectual life and growth, as well as spiritual 
enlightenment and development. It is no doubt true 
that we owe the popular education of modern European 
countries to Christianity. It arose after the Reforma- 
tion. Germany and Scotland led the way, England and 
France followed, but more slowly. Where the Reforma- 
tion did not go, popular education has failed to this day 
to make much headway. Spain and Italy may be cited 
in proof. 

Christianity does not reach its best except where the 
Bible is most widely read and most vitally touches the 
life of the people. And where the Bible is read and 
studied it proves an inspiring power not only in the 
heart, but in the mind as well — and here is the secret 
source not only of the needed inspiration to education, 
but also of what itself is educative, for the Bible has 
educational value. There is no other book that means 
so much as mere literature, for it is a library of the 
best; or touches so much a range of practical themes in 
a practical way; or reaches so sublime ideals of char- 
acter, life, and duty; or presents so noble a philosophy; 
or broadens the mind by the revelation and discussion 
of so great themes. Where such a book goes, education 
advances, and where the Bible is circumscribed in its 
distribution there will be found wanting the living 

201 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

power that makes for intellectual advancement. But 
where the Christian missionary goes the Bible goes, 
schools are started, educational systems appear, and the 
people become educated. 

The process is a perfectly natural one. Take any 
community of savages anywhere that has come under 
the influence of the gospel. The simple parts of the 
New Testament are the first subjects taught. A little 
knowledge imparted by word of mouth means two 
things : The desire to know more, and the desire to read 
it out of the book for one's self. By most natural 
processes one goes on to study the elementary branches 
of a general education, while some get a broader vision 
and demand even the higher branches as well. Institu- 
tions are demanded as a matter of course, and the 
simple school under a tree, with the dust of the earth 
for slate and blackboard, proves to be only the first 
rung in the ladder; but speedily others are added until 
colleges and normal and theological schools grow up. 
Such is the educational advance that accompanies the 
work of world evangelization carried on by the Chris- 
tian Church. More than this, there is no such move- 
ment successfully fostered under any other system. 

But there are countries not a few where the mis- 
sionary finds people with a literature and educational 
systems, and with law codes and philosophers. Such 
was true in the case of China, India, and to some extent 
of Turkey. What has the Christian propaganda done 
for education in such lands? Here the influence has 
been no less marked, but it has been transforming rather 
than creative. The educational methods of China, India, 
Turkey, and other lands where Christianity has found 
such conditions as have long prevailed in these lands, 
have been revolutionized by missionary effort. The old 

202 



EDUCATION. 

methods, stereotyped and ill-adapted as they were, have 
given place to those suggestive of life and effort and 
adaptation. The system in China of memorizing the 
old classics has given way before that system which has 
followed Christianity's entrance, as has also the system 
of mere memorizing and repetition in India, and also 
its geography based on mere imagination. 

Education was, in the case of woman, in some lands 
placed under the ban by a social custom — as in India, 
where any opportunity to learn to read and write was 
accorded to the temple-girls only, so that this ability 
was counted as a mark of an immoral life. Such hin- 
drances as this, and those of the zenana system and child 
marriage, have stood in the way of education among 
girls and women. When Doctor Duff came to under- 
stand these conditions, he remarked: "Female educa- 
tion in India, so far as I can see, is hopeless. You might 
as well try to scale a wall five hundred yards high as 
attempt to give Christian education to either the women 
or the girls of India." 

The wives of the missionaries and the single ladies 
sent out by the mission boards have done a wonderful 
work in this direction. One wonders to what influence 
the women could have looked for relief had Christianity 
not come to them. Governments are slow to deal with 
matters deeply rooted in social customs and religious 
practice, and commerce does not interest itself with 
codes of education and the uplift of the socially de- 
praved. Then, too, there is no system or movement 
among men that is adapted, by its sympathetic interest 
and its spirit of life, to such a work. The Christian 
faith with its messengers of sympathy and love can ac- 
complish the result demanded. In referring to this 
phase of mission work, President Washburn, of Robert 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

College, said: "The attacks made upon this work, al- 
though not altogether without excuse, were undoubtedly 
a mistake which put back the missionary work of the 
East a quarter of a century. The result of this inter- 
esting and noble work is that both Moslems and Cath- 
olics have been aroused throughout the empire. Whereas 
in that empire in 1829 there was not one school for 
girls, to-day there is hardly a town in which girls may 
not learn to read." 

Says Doctor James S. Dennis in treating of education 
in India: "It is education that creates in the Indian 
mind a taste for the literature of the modern world and 
breaks the spell of the ancient Indian classics, which, 
however worthy of admiration as examples of philosophic 
acumen and speculative genius, are of little value for 
all purposes of practical instruction in this age of the 
world. The demand for fresh and informing literature 
in all branches of knowledge is stimulated, journalistic 
enterprise is promoted, mission and native presses and 
publishing houses are multiplied and kept busy, while 
an era of wholesome, instructive, and timely literary 
activity is being rapidly developed. The founding and 
enriching of museums of science for the encouragement 
of learning are additional features of this intellectual 
renaissance." 

He says also, and most truly: "The educated upper 
classes, who have been trained in the atmosphere of 
non-religious and non-missionary institutions, are con- 
fessedly not zealous in desiring or working for the edu- 
cation of the masses. The educational enthusiasm 
which plans large things for the benefit of all classes of 
the Indian population has pertained almost wholly to 
the program of missions; even in the case of non-Chris- 
tian progressives, where we find an approach to this 

204 



EDUCATION. 

enthusiasm, it can, in large measure, be traced to the 
example and influence of missions." 

In no country has mission education been more 
firmly pressed, in none have greater difficulties been 
met or greater successes won than in India. In a country 
where the religious spirit prevails as here, Christian 
education, to be of any evangelistic value, must be 
markedly and always Christian. 

The British blue book on the "Progress of Educa- 
tion in India," published in 1904, bears this testimony: 
"From a very early date missionary societies have 
played an important part in the development of Indian 
education." 

Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser, late Lieutenant-Governor 
of Bengal, bears testimony to the practical character of 
the education given in mission schools in the following 
words: "It has been my policy to find out the school 
from which boys who are candidates for government 
service come, and I find that the best boys have come 
from missionary schools and colleges." 

Protestant missions have always laid special emphasis 
on education. Schools spring up as by magic in the 
trail of the missionary. Books are circulated broad- 
cast. The informing of the mind and the stimulating of 
thought are ever prominent. It is a suggestive fact that 
a desire for education speedily appears where Chris- 
tianity has been accepted. This is true not merely as 
applied to knowledge of Christian truth, but to secular 
knowledge as well. 

The extent of missionary education can be gauged 
in part only by the statistics of educational institutions. 
In addition to all that can be included in statistical tables, 
there is a constant work going on in village communities 
that tends to open the mind and to impart important 

205 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

knowledge. Figures that speak of the extent of organ- 
ized educational effort are here given: 

Number of 
Grade of Institution. Number Pupils 

Universities and Colleges 86 8,628 

Theological, Normal Schools, and Training 

Classes 522 12,761 

Boarding and High Schools 1,714 166,447 

Industrial Training Institutions and Classes 292 16,292 

Elementary and Village Schools 30,185 1,290,357 

Kindergarten-Schools and Classes 115 5,597 

Medical Schools and Schools for Nurses .. . 67 651 

The extent of these various phases of the educational 
agency is shown by the fact that all of them have a 
place in the work of the Church in the following coun- 
tries, namely: Africa, China, India, Japan, Persia, 
Turkey, while nearly all are represented in all other 
great mission fields of the Church, and doubtless in 
some of these fields work on additional lines has been 
opened since the latest reports were compiled. It is also 
probable that some reports lacked in completeness. 
But according to printed reports the following lands 
lack in only one out of the above list of educational 
agencies, namely: Burma, Ceylon, Korea, Mexico, 
Madagascar, Syria, South America. 

The above figures speak of a great work accomplished 
and of foundation laid for a yet broader and in every 
way more beneficent work in the future. We wish to 
emphasize again the fact that the real stirring of intel- 
lectual life goes much beyond the comparatively narrow 
circle reached within the walls of educational institu- 
tions. These lands are surely in the dawn of an intel- 
lectual renaissance, the beginnings of which must be 
credited to Christian missions. Happy will these lands 
be if the Christian Church plans so wisely and gener- 

206 



EDUCATION. 

ously in the directing of this educational movement that 
the gospel of Christ shall leaven the whole mass of the 
intellectual life of these lands. For the Church to with- 
hold her hand to-day from the liberal sowing that will 
mean such a harvest will, and can only, mean that an- 
tagonistic faiths shall touch the movement with a 
blighting influence. To-day is most surely the day of 
opportunity in this direction. The Church of Christ in 
Christian lands must decide whether the streams of in- 
tellectual life now being set in motion in non-Christian 
lands shall flow within the broad banks of Christianity's 
onsweeping flood or be turned into sluggish channels by 
faiths that have no power to develop and direct intel- 
lectual life and thought. The day of greatest oppor- 
tunity is the day of the small beginnings in this respect. 
But attention must here be called to the fact that 
we have only referred to the work in foreign mission 
lands. The educational outcome of Christianity's ad- 
vance, however, appears in Christian lands, in the insti- 
tutions built up and in the training given, and even 
more, perhaps, in the educational impulse that has been 
created around the globe. In the contemplation of such 
a subject one speedily realizes that he can not hope to 
do more than call attention to a greatness that can not 
be measured. The educational impulse has never been 
wanting where vital Christianity has held sway. The 
great lands dominated by the Protestant faith have felt 
a mental awakening, and education has flourished. It 
has permeated all sections of these lands and touched 
all classes of their peoples. Thought has been stimu- 
lated and mental power developed. As the result, in- 
ventions have been numerous, the conditions under 
which man labors have been greatly improved, and a 
great influence has been exerted over less favored lands. 

207 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 



Christianity's Program Provides for Achievement Along Social and Hu- 
manitarian Lines: 

"The healing of the seamless dress 
Is by the bed of pain; 
We touch Him in life's throng and press, 
And we are whole again." — John G. Whittier. 

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." 

— Apostle Paul. 

14 



"Seventy years ago (I quote from a statement published in India 
in the Indian Watchman) the fires of Suttee were publicly blazing in 
the presidency towns of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, and all over 
India the fires of Suttee, in which the screaming and struggling widow — 
in many cases herself a mere child — was bound to the dead body of 
her husband, and with him burned to ashes. Seventy years ago infants 
were publicly thrown into the Ganges, as sacrifices to the goddess of the 
river. Seventy years ago young men and maidens, decked with flowers, 
were slain in Hindu temples before the hideous idol of the goddess Kali, 
or hacked to pieces as the Meras, that their quivering flesh might be 
given to propitiate the god of the soil. Seventy years ago the cars of 
Jaganath were rolling over India, crushing hundreds of human victims 
annually beneath their wheels. Seventy years ago lepers were burned 
alive, devotees publicly starved themselves to death, parents brought 
their children to the banks of the Ganges and hastened their death by 
filling their mouths with the sands and the water of the so-called sacred 
river. Seventy years ago the swinging festivals attracted thousands to 
see the poor, writhing wretches, with iron hooks thrust through the 
muscles of their backs, swing in mid-air in honor of their gods. For 
these scenes, which disgraced India seventy years ago, we may now 
look in vain. And need I remind you that every one of these changes 
for the better is due directly or indirectly to missionary enterprise and 
the spirit of Christianity? It was Christian missionaries, and those who 
supported them, who proclaimed and denounced these tremendous evils." 
— Canon Hole, in an address at Nottingham, England, June 15, 1887. 

"In comparing India at the beginning of the century with the 
India of to-day, a great improvement is to be noted in the moral and 
social conditions. The prohibition of human sacrifice and of torture in 
the religious rites, of the burning of widows, of the killing of female 
children, and the efforts at reform in the practice of child-marriage are 
all direct results of the exposure and condemnation by the missionaries. 
The establishment of schools and colleges, which was inaugurated by the 
missions, has created a widespread zeal for education hitherto unknown 
in the land. The awakened interest of the Brahmins in the purification 
of their religion, and the efforts of reformers to establish a Hindu wor- 
ship more in accord with the enlightened spirit of the age, are the direct 
outgrowth of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. If not a single 
conversion could be recorded in the past century, these reforms and 
blessings alone would be an abundant reward for all the labors of the 
missionaries and the money contributed by the Churches for their sup- 
port." — The Hon. John W. Foster. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Social and Humanitarian. 

Christianity has, from its beginning, had a place 
among the forces that make for the improvement of the 
social order. In non-Christian lands there is no pro- 
gram for such service, and in lands where the Christian 
system has a place only in name, social conditions are 
but little improved. Where, however, the Christian 
faith has taken such hold upon the people that a real 
spiritual life has been generated, social conditions have 
been changed to a marked degree. In such cases social 
conditions such as are found in non-Christian lands mar 
a picture otherwise beautiful. Thus slavery, polygamy, 
divorce, destruction of child-life, child marriage, en- 
forced widowhood, caste distinction, intemperance, and 
immorality appear in darker hue amid a Christian civil- 
ization than anywhere else. Against such things Chris- 
tianity by its very nature stands opposed, and when 
Christianity enters where these prevail, or when these 
appear where Christianity holds sway, a contest is sure 
to take place. The history that stands in proof of this 
statement is so extensive and relates to so many lands 
that it can not be given here even in barest outlines. A 
few points only can be given in proof, and the reader 
must be referred to the extensive literature that is 
available on the subject. 

The Roman Empire furnishes our first viewpoint. 
It has seemed strange to many that Jesus Christ spoke 
no word directly dealing with some of the greatest evils 

211 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

of all time — evils that flourished when He lived. It is 
enough, however, that He inculcated great principles 
that put the faith and the Church that bear His name 
in eternal opposition to those social evils. His sensitive 
nature must have suffered more than we can under- 
stand as He lived where slavery flourished and woman- 
hood was degraded as under Roman rule. But the 
Roman rule was wide-flung, and He who could drive out 
from the temple the things that polluted could not thus 
purge the Roman world of its traffic in human flesh and 
its low ideals of womanhood. Be it noted, however, 
that the seed sown in the form of great principles and 
of spiritual life speedily brought forth fruit. 

The leaven of Christianity worked silently, and the 
results were not largely apparent until emperors, Chris- 
tian in name, ruled the Roman World. Under Con- 
stantine and Justinian great changes took place in the 
social order in respect to woman. What had her con- 
ditions been under the greatest empire, and the most 
enlightened, the world had then known? She was under 
perpetual male tutelage. Her husband's control over 
her property was absolute, and his power over her person 
unlimited. She was held in contempt. She could exer- 
cise no authority over her minor children and was not 
consulted, even, regarding their marriage. 

In the case of divorce there was a laxity in the laws 
that robbed marriage of much of its sacred character. 
" Until death us do part" had no place in the marriage 
service and no assured place in actual life. Either 
party could secure legal release by expressing the wish 
in writing. It is claimed that women used their right 
in this direction more frequently than did men. We 
need hardly be told that vice prevailed to an alarming 
degree in Roman family life when we consider the place 

212 



SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 

assigned to women and the laws governing divorce. 
Concubinage was allowed, and adultery was common. 
The first centuries of Christianity synchronized with the 
lowest debasement of Roman family life and the deepest 
degradation of the social order. 

Here was Christianity's first field of action; such the 
conditions the gospel sought to change. To this great 
task the Christian faith brought an exalted ideal of the 
marriage relation. It had no loose teaching to present, 
for Christ Himself had set the highest value on marriage. 
There was to be divorce for adultery only, while con- 
cubinage and polygamy were outlawed. Marriage was 
to be held most sacred, being typified by the mystical 
union between Christ and His Church, and personal 
purity was strictly enjoined and then stressed by the 
declaration that the body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost. 

The first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine, 
while not embodying the highest type of Christian man- 
hood either in ideal or in life, sought to model the social 
order by applying the principles of the gospel. The 
duty of marital fidelity on the part of both husband and 
wife was emphasized by legal enactment, while con- 
cubinage was prohibited and adultery made a capital 
offense. Under him, and under Justinian, advance was 
made; but that advance was gradual, and retrograde 
movements often set in. 

We can not fail in this connection to call attention 
to slavery, which flourished at this period. The world 
has, perhaps, never witnessed a worse condition in 
respect to the enslavement of man by his fellow than 
prevailed there when Christ came to declare liberty to 
the captive. The Roman galley and mine stand for 
scenes of inhumanity and oppression that the imagina- 

213 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tion can not picture. Slavery's attendants, vice, degrada- 
tion, and misery, flourished. The greatest philosophers 
and the best products of non-Christian philosophic 
systems failed to get a vision of the debasing influence 
slavery was exerting on both master and slave. Chris- 
tianity first demanded humane treatment of the slave, 
and even emphasized the bond of brotherhood between 
slave and master. As in the case of woman, some ad- 
vance in the amelioration of the condition of the slave 
was made during the reigns of Constantine and Justin- 
ian, but progress was slow. It was not, however, until 
the ninth century that the direct order against slavery 
was issued, and to Saint Theodoret of Constantinople 
belongs the honor. His order is worthy of record: 
"Thou shalt possess no slave, neither for domestic 
service nor for the labor of the fields, for man is made 
in the image of God." 

Apart from the fact of enforced labor, the slave was 
degraded in the eye of the law, being denied all civil 
rights; being regarded as property subject to sale and 
purchase; by being denied all property rights, and even 
of legal parentage, since for him there was no legal 
marriage; by being deprived of all appeal to the courts 
and excluded from witnessing in court, his testimony 
not being legal unless given under torture. In addition 
to the usual features of slavery, that of the Roman 
Empire, in the early ages of the Christian Church, had 
a special feature. Slaves were made use of in the li- 
centious and cruel sports that characterized that age. 
The mind would revolt against accepting the reports 
that come down to us were they not in harmony with 
the many terrible features of that bloody age. It is 
hard for us to believe that even a Roman emperor would 
continue for one hundred and twenty-three days, as 

214 



SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 

Trajan is said to have done, a bloody contest in which 
ten thousand prisoners and gladiators contended in the 
arena. 

Another feature of the social order was the destruc- 
tion of child-life. The feeble or deformed were ruth- 
lessly destroyed, whether boys or girls, and large num- 
bers of girls, especially of the poor, were cast out to die. 
In addition, the power of life and death was given to the 
father over his children. Surely in this darkest night 
of heathen profligacy and degradation of manhood and 
womanhood one sees the greatness of the need of such 
teaching as Christ came to give and such a life as He 
sought to implant. Rugged was the field and thin and 
thorny the soil, for the most part; but transformations 
were gradually effected that stamp the power at work 
as the power of the Living God. 

As we move on to Northern Europe and in point of 
time to the Middle Ages, we find much the same condi- 
tions prevailing as we found in the Roman Empire at an 
earlier date, both in regard to woman's legal rights and 
to slavery, though woman was more highly esteemed, 
on the whole, and hence her condition was somewhat 
improved. Here Christianity exerted its influence, grad- 
ually relieving the darker features of the picture. That 
the Church was alive to the unchristian character of 
slavery, and bitterly opposed to it, is proven by the 
fact that thirty-seven Church councils are reported to 
have taken action looking to the amelioration of the 
condition of the slave. Gradually, even where slavery 
itself was not placed under legal ban, special rights and 
privileges were accorded to them, as, for instance, in 
England, special concessions for feast days and Sundays. 
Action favorable to the slave finally went so far that 
emancipation of slaves frequently took place, and 

215 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

finally under William the Conqueror a law was passed 
that forbade the slave trade. While the Roman Con- 
quest retarded the movement, the ground lost was re- 
gained, and more, under Henry II. 

If the position that amelioration of the condition of 
woman, the gradual rise of a feeling against the enslave- 
ment of man, and a higher value on child-life, together 
with many other changes for good in the social life of 
the people, placed to the credit of Christianity must be 
challenged, we call attention to the following facts: 
First, the principles taught by Christ and the whole 
effort of His life were directed to relieving distress and 
exalting the individual. Second, where those principles 
have been inculcated, and His life has been accepted as 
the ideal for humanity, such improvements as we have 
sketched have taken place in the social life of the people. 
Third, non-Christian lands show no such tendency up 
to this present time, except as Christianity has entered, 
and where it is entered that tendency has speedily ap- 
peared and increased as the influence of the Christian 
faith has widened. Attention may here be called to 
the foot-binding custom in China and the exposure of 
the new-born babes; to polygamy, concubinage and the 
looseness of the marriage relation among Mohammedan, 
people everywhere; to the ban upon female education 
among the Hindus, with child marriage, enforced widow- 
hood, polygamy, and other features of the social system 
that degrade woman. It may be noted, too, that in 
India and China there were great thinkers, and that 
their systems of philosophy and their great and ancient 
literatures forbid placing these great peoples among 
the barbarous nations. In fact there is evidence to 
prove that in India woman's place was a worthy one in 
the far-distant past of the Aryan race, and that her 

216 



SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 

degradation has become more and more marked in 
spite of philosophy and in spite of a litertaure that 
exalts her far above the place she occupies in practical, 
every-day life. 

In our modern life and under a Christian civiliza- 
tion slavery, when it appears at all, excites stern resent- 
ment, and the clamor at once excited for its overthrow 
shows the true spirit of the age. No more need be said 
to show how great has been Christianity's triumph in 
this respect. Perhaps the triumph is greater here than 
at any other point of the social program. The victory 
won for childhood has been great indeed; but conditions 
still exist that are at variance with the principles of the 
gospel, and call for speedy change. While the outcome 
is such as to warrant a special tribute of praise to God, 
we must not close our eyes to the real conditions and 
fail to note what yet remains to be done. The victory 
has not been fully won when child-life is safe from 
destruction at its very beginning if it is then subjected 
to the grievous wrong of overtaxing work under condi- 
tions that deprive of playtime and sunshine and school, 
as is too often the case now because the mine and 
factory are allowed to swallow up child-life. 

The place given to womanhood under Christian 
civilization by the law, in respect to personal and prop- 
erty rights, is in such marked contrast to that accorded 
to non-Christian womanhood anywhere that one sees 
hope for the latter only in that which has brought ele- 
vation to the former. It is not too much to say that 
what we understand by the word "home" is known no- 
where outside the pale of Christian civilization. The 
languages of non-Christian peoples can not express at 
all the thought of home, and the best translation of 
those words that so wonderfully thrill the hearts of 

217 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

those who have known the home Christianity has estab- 
lished, "Home, home, sweet, sweet home," would cause 
no thrill in any human breast. 

The freedom given to woman in Christian lands is a 
surprise to non-Christian women. The contrast marked 
by that freedom as compared with the Purdah system 
of the Mohammedans, and of the high-caste Hindus, 
indexes woman's physical vantage ground under Chris- 
tianity. We must here say that, while the great Chris- 
tian governments of the world are above the non-Chris- 
tian ones in respect to law, and their peoples far more 
advanced in social life, there remain yet many abuses 
to be corrected and many wrongs to be righted. Prob- 
ably along no line has the achievement of the world 
evangelization movement been more clearly marked than 
along that of the social order; but it is not our object 
to picture that outcome in a light not warranted by 
facts or to attempt to prove that the social results 
sought through centuries have been already reached. 
The love of money and unbridled passion still bind 
social evils upon the countries called Christian, and too 
often the use of unholy means secures them legal per- 
fection. Marriage is held less sacred than it should be, 
and is too often contracted with less calm thought than 
is used in a matter of ordinary business. Sometimes, 
also, it is severed as easily as a civil contract. Selfish 
interest leads to oppression akin to slavery, and while 
the law gives equal rights, the might of wealth deprives 
many of rights inherent in manhood and womanhood 
and nullifies the law from which they have a right to 
expect protection or redress. And further still, even 
where the law declares for equality, and the caste system 
has no place, a class system has grown up that has 
built up barriers utterly inconsistent with the spirit 

218 



SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN. 

of brotherhood Jesus taught and exemplified. Well may 
we rejoice over the social improvement gained, but let 
us at the same time lift up our eyes and look upon real 
conditions with no prejudiced view, but determined to 
know the facts. Thus only can the people of God get a 
vision of present need that will lead to the service needed 
to complete the good purpose already pushed so far 
towards realization in the social life of Christian nations, 
and prepare the way for the broader vision that takes in 
all non-Christian peoples who still groan under social 
disabilities that Christ came to remove. 

Let us try now to get a little closer view of the sub- 
ject in respect to the organized work now being carried 
on in lands where non-Christian systems prevail, passing 
by similar work in lands called Christian, since we know, 
to some degree at least, what is being done there. The 
following table of institutions will show the kind of 
work that is being carried on, while the number of insti- 
tutions and the number of inmates will show the extent 

of the work: 

Number of 

Kind of Institution. Number. Inmates. 

Orphanages 271 20,383 

Leper Hospitals and Asylums 88 6,769 

Homes for Untainted Children of Lepers. . 21 567 

Homes for the Blind and for Deaf Mutes . . 25 844 

Rescue Homes 21 856 

Opium Refuges 103 2,548 

Homes for Widows 15 410 

Industrial Homes 28 1,789 

Medical Hospitals 576 

Dispensaries 1,077 .... 

Hospital In-patients 164,751 

Dispensary Treatments for Year 4,235,375 .... 

Outside Patients 145,945 

Total Individual Patients 4,317,064 

Total Treatments 7,578,942 

219 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Number of 
Kind of Institution. Number. Inmates. 

Surgical Operations — Minor 120,481 

Major 36,897 

Total 157,378 

Schools and Classes Ill 830 

Schools and Classes for Nurses 98 663 

The above figures show the channels through which 
the Christian Church is attempting to give relief to the 
people in foreign lands. Apart from the results that 
can be seen, we may confidently believe that through 
such a ministry as the followers of Christ are exercising 
among the darkened peoples of those lands some spir- 
itual light will surely shine in upon their spiritual dark- 
ness. 



220 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 



The Results of the Christian Propaganda are its Best Apologetic: 

"In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the 
desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty 
ground springs of water." — Isaiah 35: 6, 7. 

"All that we call modern civilization, in a sense which deserves the 
name, is the visible expression of the transforming power of the gospel." 
— James Anthony Froude, in "Short Studies on Great Subjects." 



"All things grow sweet in Him, 
He draws all things unto an order fair. 
All fierce extremes that beat along time's shore 
Like chidden waves grow mild, 
And creep to kiss His feet; 
For He alone it is that brings 
The fading flower of our humanity to perfect 
blossoming." 

"I believe, notwithstanding all that the English people have done 
to benefit India, the missionaries have done more than all other agencies 
combined." — Lord Lawrence, one-time Viceroy of India. 

"After eight years at the Colonial Office and Admiralty, I have a 
profound contempt, which I have no desire to disguise, for those who 
sneer at missions." — The Earl of Selbourne, First Lord of the Admiralty. 

"The great characteristic of Christianity, and the proof of its 
divinity, is that it has been the source of the moral development of 
Europe, and that it has discharged this office, not so much by the in- 
culcation of a system of ethics, however pure, as by the assimilating 
and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progress of man- 
kind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian as long 
as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Chris- 
tian Founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history 
of the human race than the way in which that ideal has traversed the 
lapse of ages, acquiring new strength and beauty with each advance of 
civilization, and infusing its beneficent influence into every sphere of 
thought and action." — William E. H. Lecky, in "History of Rationalism 
in Europe." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A Christian and Missionary Apologetic. 

The apologetic writings of the Early Church were with- 
out doubt an important factor in the work of establish- 
ing Christianity more firmly and of extending its bounds. 
The great apologetic for Christianity for to-day, how- 
ever, is to be found in what the Church has accomplished 
under the laws governing its propaganda and the condi- 
tions under which the work has been carried on. The 
mere fact that Christianity has lived and spread abroad 
in the world may not weigh heavily in an apologetic 
sense, but the fact that it has extended so widely under 
the principles governing its propaganda, that its results 
have been so varied and important to the nations that 
have pushed it out into all the earth, and that it has 
everywhere exerted so beneficial an influence upon the 
peoples it has touched — these facts combined make an 
apologetic of surpassing worth. Other great religions 
have arisen and spread widely — as Buddhism and Mo- 
hammedanism — but the methods of their propaganda 
and their influence over the peoples brought under their 
sway stand in marked contrast to those of the Christian 
propaganda. We shall refer to the great non-Christian 
faiths in another section. It must suffice here to merely 
call attention to a few of the points in which Christianity 
differs from them. 

We do not wish to deal with non-Christian faiths in 
any flippant or unsympathetic way, for each of those 
faiths is held sacred by great masses of people who, 

223 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

through them, are worshiping according to the best light 
they have. Such religions have lived not because of 
what they have done to benefit their devotees, but be- 
cause hearts have been true to the inner impulse to give 
recognition to the supernatural and in some way assure 
themselves healthful alliance with beings and forces 
unseen. We would therefore tread reverently as we 
walk among these great faiths, although they represent 
not light, but darkness. 

The great non- Christian religions — that of Moham- 
med alone excepted — were old when Jesus was born in 
Bethlehem of Judea and accomplished His great mis- 
sion in Palestine. Mohammed alone, among the founders 
of great religious systems, came late enough so he could, 
to any degree, make use of truths and principles Christ 
had taught. Christianity had no virgin soil to cultivate. 
Her first victories had to be wrung from zealous Jew 
and voluptuous Pagan. She had no earthly throne of 
power, no stored-up treasure, no wealth of learning, and 
no armed host. We know the standing, size, and equip- 
ment of the first band that went forth as the forerunners 
of an army of conquest that was to tread every land of 
earth and establish the Kingdom of Christ without any 
physical and temporal weapons. 

Christianity's appeal, too, must be noticed. That 
appeal was not to selfish ease, temporal gain, or social 
position. For a long time it was to meet opposition, to 
suffer persecution even unto death. Or rather the ap- 
peal was to a life, a testimony, a service that met oppo- 
sition and persecution. To no other faith has this fact 
applied so largely as to Christianity. 

At the same time Christianity has made demands 
that no other faith has ever made upon its people. Its 
demands, as we have seen, have been made not along 

224 



A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 

the lines of least resistance, but of the greatest resistance 
in a man's being. With the inculcation of the principle 
that the highest life is that of service to others, it has 
demanded of man that he deny self for others. It has 
required purity of heart and life, and that lust and 
passion be not only held in check, but conquered. The 
culminating point in its demand regarding the spirit of 
the life is reached when love is exalted so that the 
demand is to love one's neighbor as one's self, and to 
carry this to the point where the enemy even is included. 
Has any other faith made such demands and placed the 
emphasis on the heart-life, demanding that it be guarded 
with all diligence? 

Again, Christianity's ministry is a broader and 
deeper one than any other faith attempts, and therefore 
makes an appeal to more strenuous life and effort. 
Body, mind, and heart must all be brought under the 
sway of Christianity and must then be dedicated to 
service. A day must be set apart each week for rest 
and worship, the mind must be cultivated and the heart 
developed. What non-Christian faith puts emphasis on 
every department of one's being or has touched any one 
department with the practical touch, or given the im- 
pulse Christianity gives? 

Christianity, too, stands alone in its ideals in respect 
to character and life; in respect to relationships in 
home, society, and in government. Purity and unself- 
ishness in both inner and outer life and unselfishness in 
actions that bear or may bear on others. What other 
religion has such ideals, to say nothing of their embodi- 
ment in a Single Character and Life lived among men? 

Another striking contrast appears if we consider the 
condition of salvation. In non-Christian faiths where 
there is any idea at all of salvation it does not touch 
15 225 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

such depths as Christianity reaches, nor does it rest on 
such a foundation. Such as it is, it rests on works, not 
faith, and therefore makes life a hard service and the 
goal — salvation — a matter of uncertainty. The power 
of laying hold upon God is entirely wanting. There 
can be no possibility of the heart being assured of ac- 
ceptance with God. 

The contrast appears once more in the social system 
attendant on these various faiths. This is true to a 
marked degree as regards womanhood and the family 
life. Woman's place in the social order is in all of them 
that of inferiority to man — an inferiority that in the 
most of them is so marked that she can hardly be 
counted as having any place in the social order beyond 
that of a servant and drudge. The brotherhood of man, 
too, is so far overlooked that slavery can flourish under 
non-Christian faiths, while in the case of Hinduism the 
religion itself, through its system of caste, antagonizes 
the very principle of the brotherhood of man. 
i But in no respect is the contrast these religions 
present to the Christian faith more strongly marked 
than in the views held regarding the supernatural. It 
is when we come to consider God — His nature and 
attributes — and the nature of the future life that the 
gulf widens to its greatest extent. Christianity speaks' 
clearly, emphatically, authoritatively. The non-Chris- 
tian faiths, except Mohammedanism, lack definitive- 
ness and, therefore, authoritativeness where they speak 
at all, and even Mohammedanism differs widely with 
Christianity on these important points. We look to 
other world faiths and ask what other religion has had 
such a record? Look to Burma and Ceylon or to Japan 
and China for an answer so far as Buddhism is con- 
cerned. The social life and general status of the people 

226 



A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 

of India must answer for Hinduism, while Turkey, 
Arabia, Persia, North Africa, and India testify to the 
fact that Mohammedanism is wanting when judged by 
its influence on humanity. Who that considers the 
state of China will claim that Confucianism or Taoism 
have worked to the benefit of the people as Christianity 
does? And can Japan commend the Shinto faith? 
These faiths, one and all, fail in the supreme test — the 
physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual uplift of peo- 
ples and nations. 

But how is it with Christianity? High in ideal, prac- 
tical in its plan, and mighty in its touch, it has not failed 
to uplift nations and peoples everywhere it has gone in 
its world-wide mission. Other faiths have the stamp 
of human authorship upon them, and the results wrought 
by these faiths speak of no loftier work than that of 
man. But with Christianity the stamp of more than a 
human hand is everywhere apparent. 

With these brief contrasts, and such a view of the 
world conditions, the conviction is upon us that Chris- 
tianity's advance, and especially its marvelous influence, 
give it a sure defense. The fact that it has won its con- 
verts from all these great faiths does not, we admit, 
prove its superiority; nor does the fact that people 
have suffered in its defense, but the fact that it has 
gained such victories and accomplished such results as 
it has along so many lines, and done it all under the 
impulse of love and without carnal weapons, stands as 
a strong apologetic for the faith of Christ. 

Christianity's claim to being of divine origin can be 
reasonably harmonized with the moral and social and 
intellectual and spiritual results that follow its advance 
only on the ground of its truth. The propagation of a 
He can hardly be expected to uplift people everywhere 

227 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

it goes, and make truthful, sober, industrious, pure, and 
noble all those who come under its benign influence. 
We point to the outcome of the proclamation of the 
gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salva- 
tion, and say, "Here is a defense of Christianity that is 
clear, strong, conclusive — a defense that all can under- 
stand." Mr. James Anthony Froude, in "Short Studies 
on Great Subjects," says, "All that we call modern 
civilization — in a sense, which deserves the name — is the 
visible expression of the transforming power of the 
gospel." And to this we add that such a visible expres- 
sion of transformation and uplift as the world movement 
shows should be accepted as a sure defense of Chris- 
tianity's claim that it has a world mission of world 
regeneration to accomplish under a divine commission 
and with a divine empowering. 

But whatever weight Christian progress has as a 
Christian apologetic, it surely has great weight as an 
argument for missions. The subject already outlined 
must be a sufficient reason for pushing the world move- 
ment to the farthest borders, and throughout the full 
extent, of every land. Exploration, at great expense of 
life and treasure, has its defense in the fact of a wider 
opening up of the world. Scientific research needs no, 
better defense than the assured results in a wider knowl- 
edge of the material universe and an increased ability 
to grapple with problems affecting human life and happi- 
ness. The commercial enterprise asks no better defense 
than increased trade between nations and greater ma- 
terial prosperity give; while the increase of intellectual 
life and the greater enlightenment of great peoples are 
accepted as a sufficient reason for pushing the work of 
education and developing literary activity. Who can 



A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 

say that each of these fails in its defense when it has 
such results to its credit. 

By the same test — that of its fruits — let the mis- 
sionary propaganda be judged, and on the same argu- 
ment let its defense rest. What has the Christian move- 
ment to its credit that may serve for its defense? The 
preceding chapters are an answer to this question. The 
account is heavy in its favor. To merely summarize: 
The Church with its wide sweep and its beneficent influ- 
ence; a no unworthy share in the opening up of the 
world to trade, and to the knowledge of man, with their 
resultant benefits to the race; the wide diffusion of 
spiritual and intellectual life, with resultant strength of 
character and increased efficiency; a worthy share in 
scientific research and its manifold results to humanity; 
an influence that can not be measured, but one that is 
well-nigh world-wide, constant and beneficent — in the 
literatures it has created and diffused; social transforma- 
tions and humanitarian results that have meant release 
to the enslaved and uplift to the downtrodden and op- 
pressed; a higher and most honored place for women; 
and hope awakened that brightens the life that now is 
by shedding light on that which is to come — with these 
results to its credit does the Christian propaganda need 
any other defense? In such results it surely has a suf- 
ficient defense. 

One other point may, however, be mentioned as 
reinforcing its defense and further strengthening its 
claim on the support and encouragement of the Home 
Church, namely — that its reflex influence means spir- 
itual uplift and is essential to its largest growth. This 
point must be passed here, but it will be emphasized 
further in answering the question, "Will it pay?" 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

In support of the argument of this chapter, the fol- 
lowing testimonies should have weight : 

"I believe the advancement of civilization, the extension of com- 
merce, the increase of knowledge in arts, science, and literature, the 
promotion of civil and religious liberty, the development of countries 
rich in undiscovered mineral and vegetable wealth are all intimately 
identified with and, to a much larger extent than most people are aware 
of, dependent upon the work of the missionary; and I hold that the 
missionary has done more to civilize and to benefit the heathen world 
than any or all other agencies ever employed." — Alexander Mc Arthur, 
M.P. 

"If the immediate success of British missions in spreading their 
religion over barbarous Africa be doubtful, it is consoling to reflect on 
the immense service which missionary enterprise has rendered Africa, 
to the world at large, and to Great Britain in particular. ... It 
is a force which has effected greater changes for the better in the condi- 
tion of savage Africa than armies and navies, conferences and treaties 
have yet done." — The Nineteenth Century. 

"Wherever you find the missionary, you find in his wake pros- 
perity. He it is who has taught the ignorant native a higher art of 
agriculture and improved industry, as well as a better religion." — Philip 
Knobel, Minister from Holland to China. 

"The objects most worth seeing in India, to my thinking, are 
neither the Himalayas nor the Taj Mahal, the tomb of Akbar nor the 
temple of Madura, but the varied triumphs of missionary efforts." — . 
Doctor John Henry Barrows, Haskell Lecturer to India. 

"Beginning with a prejudice against the work of the missionaries, 
I was driven by the force of facts and experience to the opinion that 
missions have been the strongest, as well as most beneficent, influence 
in causing the movement toward civilization." — TV. M. Ramsay, Archae- 
ologist. 

"Tell your friends who do not believe in foreign missions (and I 
am sure there are a good many such) that they do not know what they 
are talking about, and that three weeks' sight of mission work in India 
would convert them wholly." — Bishop Phillips Brooks. 

230 



A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY APOLOGETIC. 

"I am a convert to missions through seeing missions and the need 
for them. Some years ago I took no interest at all in the condition of 
the heathen; I had heard much ridicule cast upon Christian missions, 
and perhaps had imbibed some of the unhallowed spirit. But the mis- 
sionaries, by their life and character, and by the work they are doing, 
wherever I have seen them, have produced in my mind such a change 
and such an enthusiasm — as I might almost express it — in favor of 
Christian missions that I can not go anywhere without speaking about 
them and trying to influence others in their favor who may be as indif- 
ferent as I was." — Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, Traveler and Author. 

"I had conceived a great prejudice against missions in the South 
Seas, and I had no sooner come there than that prejudice was at first 
reduced, and then at last annihilated. Those who deblaterate against 
missions have only one thing to do — to come and see them on the spot. 
They will see a great deal of good done, and I believe, if they be honest 
persons, they will cease to complain of mission work and its effects." 
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Traveler and Author." 

"The success of Christian missions nothing but ignorance or preju- 
dice could call in question. But what has actually been accomplished 
can be fully appreciated only by those who have been upon the ground, 
and have witnessed the conditions of Pagan nations." — Dr. E. D. G. 
Prime, Editor "New York Observer." 

With such facts of human history before us, and with 
such testimonies as the above — that might be multiplied 
a hundred-fold — in defense of the Christian propaganda, 
we submit that this movement should have the hearty 
support of every man, woman, and child who wants to 
help in lifting the race to a higher plane of life, service, 
and outlook. 



231 



PART III.— THE PROBLEM. 



CHAPTER I. 

ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 



The Extent and Character of the World-Problem are such as to Challenge 
the Church to its Best Possible Effort: 
"Make disciples of all the nations." — Jesus Christ. 

"There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." — Jehovah 
to Joshua. 

"Oh, could I picture out the FULL effect 
Of that soul-withering power, idolatry, 
I 'd write a page which, whoso dared to read, 
His eye, instead of tears, in crimson drops should bleed." 

— Selected. 



"High walls, closed doors, and jealous foeman's hate 
Have ages long held Christless lands enchained, 
Whilst Ignorance and Prejudice remained, 

Twin sentinels, to further guard the gate. 

Determined force of ill doth concentrate 

At every point where Light had vantage gained, 
Where Truth, at spear-point, hath a hold maintained, 

And pricked foul Sin to show its real estate. 

"Meanwhile, how slowly move the hosts of God 
To claim the crown He hath already won! 
Their feet, how slack with preparation shod, 
To forward plant the gospel of His Son! 

"'Regions beyond!' Will Christ's Church ever dare 
In selfish ease to read, 'Beyond His care?' " — Anon. 



CHAPTER I. 

Its Extent and Character. 

The problem the Church always faces is world-wide in 
extent. Neither the real extent nor true character of the 
problem will be fully revealed in the statement that it 
embraces the discipling of all nations. True, that is 
the result sought; but what is the condition of the 
nations, what their extent, and how can the object in 
view be accomplished? To get an idea of the extent of 
the work to be done and the extent of the opposing 
forces, we must not only consider the numbers to be 
reached with the gospel, but their distribution, together 
with the character and binding force of the social customs 
and religious faiths that hold sway. This calls us to a 
study of the great world-field in respect to its present 
occupation by the army of Christ, and also of the great 
non-Christian faiths, with the social and moral condi- 
tions that have grown up under their sanction. 

The entire world-field is occupied, partially occupied, 
or unoccupied. So far as non-Christian lands are con- 
cerned, the sections that can be called adequately occu- 
pied are very few. The forces are of considerable size 
and are widely distributed in Africa, Asia, and the 
islands of the sea; but where is the army of occupation 
large enough to meet the conditions of conquest? What 
missionary can be found in India, China, Japan, Africa, 
or in the island field who does not traverse at times 
wide sections of the field he is supposed to occupy with- 
out seeing a trace of any kind of Christian activity, and 

235 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

realizing as he does so that he is powerless to meet the 
needs. The fact must be faced that the field counted 
as occupied is not, as a rule, adequately occupied. 

From our previous study some may have gained the 
impression that the whole world-field is occupied at 
least to some good degree. We are, however, dealing 
with great lands and continents. While it is true that 
mission work is carried on in the great majority of lands, 
it is also true that in some of them vast areas are ab- 
solutely untouched by the Christian army. In spite of 
all that has been done, and the extent of the field occu- 
pied, it is literally true to-day that "There remaineth 
yet very much land to be possessed." One of the out- 
standing results of the World Missionary Conference in 
Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, is the light thrown upon 
this phase of the subject. Doctor S. M. Zwemer, in 
"Unoccupied Fields," writes of the heart of two con- 
tinents being unoccupied. But the unoccupied terri- 
tory is not all embraced within the heart of the con- 
tinents of Asia and Africa, as his further development 
of the subject makes clear, although sixty millions in 
Asia and seventy millions in Africa are regarded as ab- 
solutely untouched by the gospel. And these unreached 
millions are made up of great nations of many tongues, 
and represent all the great non-Christian faiths. To get 
any adequate idea of the extent of this great field yet 
unoccupied we must note the distribution of these mil- 
lions for whom absolutely no provision has yet been 
made. Consider, then, the following list, which is only 
partial at the best: Siberia, 5,700,000; Mongolia, 2,000,- 
000; Nepal, 5,000,000; Bhutan, 300,000; French Indo- 
China, 18,230,000; Syria, east of the Jordan, 500,000; 
Sinaitic Peninsula, 50,000; Persia, 500,000; Tibet, 
6,000,000; Afghanistan, 4,000,000; Bokhara and Khiva, 

236 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

with Turkistan and Russia proper, 20,000,000; Malay 
Peninsula, 1,000,000; Eastern half of Sumatra and out- 
lying islands, 3,200,000; Central and Western Borneo, 
400,000; islands to northeast of Java, 2,000,000; Cen- 
tral and Southern Celebes, 200,000; groups of the 
Philippine Islands, 127,000; Island of Samar, 266,000; 
Islands of the Solomon group, 60,000; Central Arabia is 
unoccupied, and its coast line of four thousand miles is 
only broken by four mission stations with resident mis- 
sionaries. Turning to Africa: Senegambia, 8,000,000; 
French Guinea, 1,700,000; Dahomey, 1,500,000; Ivory 
coast, 500,000; Northern Nigeria, 4,700,000; Kumerum, 
3,000,000; French Congo, 8,000,000; Bagluimi and 
Wadai districts, 4,000,000; Portuguese East Africa, 
2,500,000; German East Africa, 2,000,000; Uganda, 
2,000,000; Italian, British, and French Somalilands, 
750,000; and several millions in the Belgian Congo 
region. 

It is to be noted in the above that not only large 
sections of some lands, but also entire lands, are yet 
unoccupied. Why are these fields /unoccupied, these 
multiplied millions not only without the gospel of Christ, 
but beyond the bounds of the effort of the Christian 
Church? Have not almost nineteen centuries rolled by 
since Jesus, having accomplished His atoning work and 
given His great and ever-binding commission to His 
Church, ascended to the heavens and sent down the 
Holy Spirit to inspire and empower His people for 
world-conquest? And must centuries roll by before the 
Church of Christ shall get such a vision of need, responsi- 
bility, and ability that with the shout, "We are well 
able to go up and possess the land," her people shall 
press forward to the conquest of every land and every 
faith in the name of Christ? 

237 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Again we must note that where Christianity has 
entered and the Church been established only a few 
millions have been gathered into the fold of Christ out 
of the hundreds of millions of the non-Christian races. 
As we shall see later, the faiths that bind these peoples 
are so bound up with social customs and so reinforced 
by ignorance and prejudice that the work of winning 
them to faith in Christ is one of the greatest difficulty. 
That the agencies set in operation and the millions al- 
ready won mean a great work accomplished we most 
firmly hold, but call attention to the fact that what has 
been accomplished is only a beginning, and that the 
great citadels in these faiths are yet to be won for 
Christ. 

We have viewed, however, only one phase of the 
question of the extent and character of the problem the 
Church must face. The nations in the midst of which 
the Church has entered with the gospel and those others 
that are yet untouched are not masses of people with- 
out religious systems who are really waiting for one to 
be brought to them and ready to accept the gospel 
when presented. On the other hand, they have, for the 
most part, well-wrought-out religions built up on sys- 
tems of philosophy, and have over the people the bind-, 
ing forces of great antiquity and of the complicated 
social systems that have grown up. These facts will 
appear as we consider the great non-Christian faiths 
that must now claim our attention. 

Our study of non-Christian faiths takes us to Asia, 
where they all, as well as the Christian faith, had their 
birth. Brahmanism — as a faith with a distinctly re- 
ligious and philosophic basis, with a priesthood and 
temple service, incarnations and sacrificial system; with 
a pantheon embracing gods and goddesses, and an an- 

238 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

tlqulty so great that it was old when Buddha and 
Zoroaster, Laoutze and Confucius founded their sys- 
tems — may fittingly be first considered. It may, in its 
present form, be termed popular Hinduism. 

Hinduism commands our special attention as a 
faith that has an ancient and extensive literature. Of 
the four sacred writings called Vedas, the Rig Veda is 

... , . the most ancient and most important. The 

Hinduism. 

earliest ol its more than one thousand hymns 

dates back to about 1500 B. C. These hymns are 
strongly religious in tone, but the prevailing character- 
istic of the religion presented is nature worship. The 
Hindus were evidently very vividly and forcibly im- 
pressed by the phenomena and forces of nature. Deeply 
impressed by the power and glory of the sunlight, they 
used the word deva for God, a Sanskrit word meaning 
bright, shining. One can hardly wonder, too, that fire, 
useful, powerful, and destructive as it is, should strongly 
impress a people whose only teacher was Nature, so that 
Agni, the god of fire, should become so popular that more 
hymns should be dedicated to him than to any other. 
Many other gods seemed naturally to take their place 
in the Hindu pantheon, but with reference to many 
some wonder is excited. 

However, we must deal with the system as we find 
it, and the fact is that the soma plant was deified be- 
cause of its intoxicating power, and was given a place 
among the mightiest of gods and even represented as 
the creator of gods. The god most exalted and lauded 
in the Vedas is Varunna, a god held in common by 
Persians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as Hindus. In 
Varunna all nature seems to be wrapped up, while to a 
mysterious presence are added power and knowledge no 
less mysterious. Varunna represents far loftier con- 

239 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ceptions of divinity than Agni and Soma, and yet be- 
longs to an earlier age. This fact indexes the trend of 
Hinduism through its history — a history we can not 
trace here. After those mentioned above, gods came 
upon the scenes in rapid succession, and the sun, the 
dawn, and the two Awina, or beams, that accompany 
it, and the winds, too, are deified. The earth and the 
waters are soon given places as goddesses. In earlier 
Hinduism, Fetishism hardly appears, but gradually im- 
plements and tools became objects of worship. 

Space will not permit following out the practical 
development of this system. Its practical side to-day is 
what is of interest to us. From the philosophic stand- 
point it is Pantheistic, and from the religious, Polytheistic 
and idolatrous, while from the social it appears as the 
embodiment of oppressive and cruel customs. It is an 
eclectic religion to-day, and shows how far man can go 
in making a religion to meet his practical need without 
the guidance of the divine revelation. In this man-made 
faith one finds combined a philosophy subtle and not 
wanting in sublimity, and systems of worship so crude 
and repulsive that one wonders how such extremes could 
meet in a great national faith. Here, too, one finds, side 
by side, the evidences of the working of great minds in 
great thoughts and the most fantastic explanations of the 
world and its origin — explanations that seem too child- 
ish for a child to accept even for a moment. Strangest of 
all, perhaps, there appears as part of this system exalted 
moral teaching and the record of the grossest immoral- 
ity in the actual life of its great heroes, now deified. 

Wonder and pity are alike excited as one sees re- 
vealed in this system the results of the outreaching of 
a great people after God. Their pantheon of three 
hundred and thirty-three million gods stands as a mute 

240 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

appeal for sympathy and aid, since it reveals a striving 
to satisfy soul-hunger and thirst. But while the term 
sacred has been attached to rivers, trees, beasts, reptiles, 
and plants, and men have fallen down and worshiped 
them; and while the forces of Nature, the heavenly 
bodies, and stones, even, have been counted as gods; 
and while pilgrimages have been made to so-called 
sacred places, the Hindus have felt no sacred touch that 
means life and vision and hope. 

And what about the social system that has grown 
up under such a religion? The outstanding features of 
the social order are caste, which separates man from 
man; child marriage, with consequent child widowhood 
and all resultant evils; the zenana system, with the nar- 
rowed intellectual and weakened physical life consequent 
on such a restricted life; and low moral tone cultivated 
by the lives of many of the gods and by the place and 
honor accorded to the temple or dancing girls, whose 
lives are openly immoral. Each one of these points is 
worthy of extended treatment, but they must all be 
passed without more than the mere mention. 

Such, in brief, is Hinduism, the faith of more than 
two hundred million people of marked spiritual aptitude 
and capable of the finest Christian attainment. Hindu- 
ism is a religion that has no dream of world-conquest. 
It is a faith that is on the defensive. It has strongholds 
that will not be easily overcome. No stronger battle- 
ments have ever been reared than those Hinduism pre- 
sents to the Christian Church as it seeks world-conquest. 
Caste, idolatry, pantheistic belief, degraded position to 
women, child marriage, fatalism, ignorance and super- 
stition — these things index a system to the conquest 
of which the Church must bring its best effort and 
service. Great triumphs are being won among India's 
16 241 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

millions, but the final triumph waits on such service, 

giving, and praying as have not been brought yet to 

bear upon the task. The triumph may seem to be far 

off, but by prayer and faith the Church of Jesus Christ 

can bring it nigh. 

Buddhism may very appropriately come next as a 

faith of Indian origin, as representing an attempt at a 

reform of the evils of Hinduism. Buddhism was the 

n .... result of the effort of an Indian sage, named 

Buddhism. ° 

Gautama, to solve the mysteries of human 

life and experience. While it had its rise in India, it 
has had no place there for many centuries, except in a 
much modified form, Jainism. It has, however, been a 
power in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, and Anam for more 
than two thousand years. It early became a prominent 
faith in Japan, China, Nepal, and later in Tartary, while 
it has recently sought a foothold in Australia and in 
parts of the Western World. 

Among its underlying principles we may mention 
self-renunciation and the idea that existence is a curse 
that must be evaded. Legend has a large place in por- 
traying the life and work of Gautama, but reliable in- 
formation is not wanting. Troubled as to the cause of 
human sorrow and suffering, he renounced home and 
friends and position and gave himself up to the most 
rigid ascetic life. Later, relaxing somewhat his rigid 
ascetic discipline, he went about preaching and teaching 
the way of deliverance from the evils of the present life. 
Starting with the idea that desire was the radical cause 
of every calamity during the present life, and after 
death, he sought to obliterate desire. He sought a pas- 
sionless calm "which contemplated nothing, desired 
nothing, enjoyed nothing, feared nothing, expected noth- 
ing, suffered nothing.'* 

242 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

With the evils of the present life ever before them, 
and with no better hope for the future than the doctrine 
of transmigration affords, the Oriental looked upon it 
as the supreme good if he could only at death secure 
deliverance by gaining unity of soul with Atman 
(Brahma) . 

Gautama began with the results of Brahminical 
thought that he found. To him the gods did not appear 
as helpers of men, but changeable, ignorant, and sub- 
ject to passion. So man was left to fight his battles with 
sorrow and death alone. Having ruled out the my- 
thologies and gods of the Hindu faith, he attacked the 
problem of the curse of existence and settled it to his 
own thinking by denying existence itself. The state- 
ment of his faith embodied what he termed "the four 
noble truths." Of these the first related to the universal- 
ity of suffering, the second to its origin in desire, while 
the third relates to the extinction of suffering by the anni- 
hilation of desire, the cause, and the fourth points out 
the sixfold way in Tightness of belief — feeling, act, 
mode of livelihood, exertion, thought, and meditation. 

Such is Buddhism, as very briefly stated — a religion 
thoroughly agnostic and practically atheistic. It has 
no place for prayer, and leaves man to work out his own 
salvation by self-obliteration. Fate rules everywhere 
with an iron hand. It comes nearer to Christianity in 
one respect than any other non- Christian faith — in that 
it is touched by human sorrow and suffering, and seeks 
a remedy. It commands respect, too, in that, like Chris- 
tianity and Islam, it seeks world-conquest. But shall 
Christianity allow such a dream to be any further 
realized by a system that rests on such foundations and 
leads men into a night so dark that he sees no glimmer 
of the divine anywhere? Does this faith with its mil- 

243 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

lions of devotees present no problem to the Church that 
demands its best thought and effort? These millions 
are the part of all the nations we are commissioned to 
disciple in Jesus' name. This faith presents a prob- 
lem that demands in its practical solution the best 
thought and effort of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

We naturally pass from Buddhism, a great faith that 
sought world-sway, to Mohammedanism, a faith that, 
rising much later, dreamed the same dream of world- 
Mohammed- conquest and has in its briefer history become 
anism. a more widely extended faith than Buddhism, 

and a much greater world-force. The creed of Islam is 
brief: "There is no Deity but God, and Mohammed is 
the apostle of God." The faith of Mohammed has been 
summed up in two brief declarations: First, "I believe 
in God, His name and attributes, and accept all His 
commands;" and second, "I believe in God, angels, 
books, prophets, the last day, the predestination by the 
Most High God of good and evil, and the resurrection 
after death." 

To the above declarations of faith five "acts of 
practice" must be added to give the practical side of 
Islam, namely: (1) The recital of the creed; (2) The 
recital of the five daily prayers; (3) Observance of the 
thirty days fast of Ramazan; (4) The legal alms; and 
(5) The pilgrimage to Mecca. 

The belief of Islam regarding God may be summar- 
ized thus: His attributes are six in number — life, 
knowledge, power, hearing, seeing, speech. The points 
of greatest interest and stress is the unity of God. With 
them the unity is not merely numerical, but is absolute. 
He stands alone, having no equal. While crediting God 
with hearing, seeing, and speaking, they deny to Him 
substance and parts. 

244 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

The teaching regarding angels is extensive, and can 
be only outlined. Nine-tenths of all created beings are 
said to be angels. They are formed out of light, are 
stationary in rank, and content with the sphere assigned. 
They obey God, desire to know Him, and are free from 
sin. According to tradition, two angels are assigned to 
care for each man by day and two by night, and guard 
him on either side. The throne of God is supported 
by eight angels, while nineteen angels have supervision 
of hell. 

Regarding sacred books, they believe that one hun- 
dred and four were sent by God as follows: To Adam, 
ten; to Seth, fifty; to Enoch, thirty; to Abraham, ten; 
to Moses, the Pentateuch; to David, the Psalms; to 
Jesus, the Gospels; to Mohammed, the Koran. To all 
practical intent and purpose Mohammedans reject the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Penta- 
teuch, Psalms, and the Gospels are regarded as definitely 
abrogated by the Koran. 

1 - ...The Koran mentions twenty-five prophets by name, 
to six of them special titles are given, namely — Adam, 
the chosen of God; Noah, the prophet of God; Jesus, the 
Spirit of God; Mohammed, the messenger of God. While 
these are the most exalted, the traditions claim there 
were as many as two hundred thousand in all. 

The followers of Mohammed believe in the resur- 
rection of the body. Heaven will be reached by a 
bridge or way that is "sharper than the edge of the 
sword, finer than a hair, suspended over hell." Some 
Moslems will fall into hell, but all except infidels seem 
finally to escape. In the orthodox belief Mohammed is 
now an intercessor for man, and will be such at the 
last day. 

Space does not allow anything further except calling 
245 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

attention to the features of Islam that mark its contrast 
to Christianity and show the strength of its hold upon 
its peoples. Believing that God is responsible, and not 
man, for all man's actions, the term sin does not mean 
the same to the Moslem as to the Christian. There is 
nothing in the Moslem teaching regarding God to bring 
Him near to man. He is a Divine Ruler whose decrees 
are absolute. Dark fatalism is the. ruling principle 
among Moslems everywhere. Says Canon Sell of them 
in this respect, "Careless of self -improvement are in all 
that relates to the higher aspects of the intellectual and 
civilized life far behind the nations of the West." 

The Islamic and Christian faiths stand in marked 
contrast, too, in their teachings regarding the future life. 
Haines, after dwelling on the temporal advantages 
gained by the Moslems in their wars, goes on to say: 
"Yet the material inducements to fight for Islam, great 
as they were, seem to have been of small estimation by 
many of these ardent missionaries in comparison with 
the glories and delights of Paradise;" and then goes on 
to give the story Muir gives of a Moslem soldier of 
fourscore years who, seeing a comrade fall by his side, 
cried out, "O Paradise, how close art thou beneath the 
arrow's point and the falchion's flash! O Hashim, even 
now I see heaven opened, and black-eyed maidens, all 
bridally arrayed, who clasp thee in their fond embrace!" 

Byron expresses the same: 

"He shouted Allah! and saw Paradise, 

With all its veil of mystery drawn apart, 
And bright Eternity without disguise 

On his soul, like a ceaseless sunrise, dart; 
With prophets, houris, angels, saints descried 
In one voluptuous blaze — and then he died." 



246 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

Haines says: "Islam, moreover, is Oriental in its 
character — it appeals to the natural man in us, it 
legitimatizes sensuality, it connives at slavery, it requires 
no great sacrifice of a man's inclinations, or even of his 
vices. In spite of Mr. Bosworth Smith's disclaimer, 
Islam is an easy religion. It does, indeed, prohibit 
drinking of wine or spirits, and it enjoins a diurnal fast 
for a whole month; but it requires no holiness in a 
man." 

Of the Arabs of Damascus it has been said: "They 
are a praying people, as they are a washing people, and 
there is just as much religion in their ablutions as in 
their devotions. Prayer with them is a simple per- 
formance. They pray as they eat, or as they sleep, or 
as they make their toilet." 

This faith is missionary, seeking world-conquest in 
the name of Mohammed. It is the faith of about 
two hundred and thirty millions of peoples whose battle 
line stretches across the two great continents of Asia 
and Africa, and has been flung out to the isles of the sea 
and over into Europe. With its vantage ground of 
nearly two-fifths of the inhabitants of Africa, one-fifth 
of those of India, its grip on thirty millions in the Malay 
Archipelago, and perhaps as many more in China; with 
a foothold in Japan and the ruling power in all North- 
western and Northern Asia, and a foothold in Europe, 
Islam presents its challenge to Christianity to meet it 
in the arena of the nations and determine what they 
shall be — Islamic or Christian. Surely it is high time that 
we awake out of sleep and set ourselves with determined 
purpose and undaunted effort to the task of winning 
the peoples of "all nations and tribes and peoples and 
tongues" to faith in Jesus Christ. 

A volume would be required for even a brief outline 
247 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

of all of the non-Christian faiths. Each one of them 
has some feature or features that would throw some light 
on the character of the world problem the Church faces. 
Those already treated will serve to emphasize the fact 
that the Church of Christ has a problem of no slight 
difficulty to solve in the evangelization of the peoples 
where these faiths hold sway. Reference must, how- 
ever, be made to other faiths, and this we will do by 
lands. 

In China three faiths are found to-day, namely, 
Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism. Of these the first is 
a moral system only, while the second, originally mystic, 
has become superstitious witchcraft. These had their 
origin about five centuries B. C, the former taking the 
name of its founder and the latter being founded by 
Laou-tsze. With such religions in the field, Buddhism, 
with its priestly and ceremonial systems, found a place 
for itself when it entered during the first century of the 
Christian era, while the Chinese, being practical re- 
ligious eclectics, were able to combine the three. An- 
cestor worship is a prominent feature of the religious 
life of the Chinese, with an admixture of nature wor- 
ship. In China, as elsewhere under non-Christian faiths, 
social ideals have been low and life has been counted, 
of small value. Hence female children in great num- 
bers have been cast out to die. The evangelization 
of China's more than four hundred million people under 
the sway of these systems is a problem of no small 
difficulty. 

Turning to Japan, we find Shinto as the national 
faith. Shinto has no idols, but temples, priests, prayers, 
purifications, bloodless sacrifices, and ritualistic ob- 
servances mark its character. Its worship embodies a 
kind of sun worship and that of ancestors, while obe- 

248 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

dience to the Mikado is enjoined. Both Confucianism 
and Buddhism have had a place in Japanese life, but the 
former is waning. Buddhism, however, somewhat 
changed by the influence of Shinto, has had great influ- 
ence. 

Moving northward to Korea, we find a composite 
religion to which Buddhism, Confucianism, and national 
religious thought have contributed, the original religion 
having been spirit worship. While Hanamin, or heaven- 
master, is counted as supreme ruler, he does not or- 
dinarily receive worship; but nature gods and two 
orders of spirits are worshiped, of which the lower rep- 
resents the souls of deceased men. The spirits of disease 
and disaster must be propitiated or exorcised. There 
are also village gods, earth spirits, mountain spirits, and 
malignant imps who play tricks on people. With so 
many occult powers to deal with, the Koreans naturally 
find a place for the sorceress and exorcist, who flourish 
on the superstitions of the people. This system of spirit 
worship naturally took on the form of Fetishism, which 
must be treated as a widely extended form of faith and 
worship. 

The system thus named has had and still has ex- 
tended sway among the barbarous and least enlightened 
of the people of several lands. This crude faith is char- 
F , . acterized by the worship of small physical 

objects, such as stones, shells, plants, and 
other objects, which are believed to be especially en- 
dowed with divinity. It appears but slightly in the 
Rig Veda, that has been mentioned as the most im- 
portant and most ancient of the Vedas. To-day it is 
the feature of the religious life in lands where, as in 
Africa, the people are the lowest and most degraded, 
and in lands of a higher civilization where there have 

249 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

been forms of nature worship; and so is found in such 
lands as Japan and Korea. 

Animism is another widespread faith among many 
peoples who have observed phenomena of a psycholog- 
ical nature but have not had the knowledge needed to 

. . . reach right conclusions. "In its full develop- 

Animism. . . . 

ment it includes the belief in souls and in a 
future state, in controlling deities and subordinate 
spirits, these doctrines practically resulting in some 
kind of active worship." With this brief statement of 
the case we can easily see how wide a sweep animistic 
belief has between the lowest of primitive peoples and 
those representing high modern culture. 

These faiths readily lend themselves to the varied 
phases of worship found among peoples uninstructed by 
a divine revelation. To such demons become very real, 
diseases are presided over by special divinities, and 
priests, exorcists, and sorcerers exercise a terrible power 
for evil over the people. 

This brief study of some of the more widespread of 
non-Christian faiths will prove some index to the char- 
acter of the problem the Church of Christ faces. Peoples 
of these faiths must be reached. Among all peoples the 
ancestral faith binds most strongly, whatever its char- 
acter may be. But when that faith embraces belief in 
demons and malignant spirits possessed of power to 
destroy, the hold of the faith upon one becomes stronger. 
We may not be able to understand how people can fail 
to respond at once when a better faith is made known. 
Such, however, is the case. Ties stronger than we know 
bind them. With all such faiths social customs have 
grown up and forms of worship been established that 
exercise a marked influence upon their peoples. Ma- 

250 



ITS EXTENT AND CHARACTER. 

terial interests often appear to them to lie altogether on 
the side of the ancient faith of their people. 

Here, then, is the task of the Church — to so present 
Christ that He shall appear desirable, and cause Him 
so to grow upon the people that belief in the old faith 
shall give place to trust in the new. Material gain can 
not be offered as an inducement, although it is sure to 
follow. No motive must be urged except that of gain- 
ing the forgiveness of one's sins, with the resultant 
blessedness of fellowship with God and of the peace of 
God that passeth all understanding. 

One other fact has a decided bearing here, namely, 
that two of the great faiths mentioned belong to the 
class recognized as missionary in character, since they 
seek to push out to the conquest of other nations and 
peoples — Mohammedanism and Buddhism. These faiths 
must be met not only in their own lands, but on the 
wider fields where they have planted themselves. Chris- 
tianity can not afford to remain inactive when such op- 
posing faiths are in the field for world-conquest and are 
winning races to their standards that will be made less 
accessible to the gospel of Christ than they have been 
before. 

What is the problem of the Church, then, in its extent 
and its character? The great continents and great 
island groups of the earth that lie under the blight of 
faiths that can not give life mark the extent, namely: 
Africa with its 150,000,000, Asia with 876,000,000, Aus- 
tralasia with 4,500,000, Malaysia with 45,000,000, 
Oceania with nearly 1,000,000. But how does it stand 
by faiths? Mohammedans, 230,000,000; Buddhists, 
135,000,000; Hindus, 210,000,000; Confucianists and 
Taoists, 292,000,000; Shintoists, 25,000,000; Animists 

251 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

and Fetishists, 157,000,000; Jews, 11,000,000; and 
more than 13,000,000 that are not classified. Add to all 
this great problem presented by these multiplied mil- 
lions of many lands and various faiths the great work 
needed among the 389,000,000 of Europe, the 37,000,000 
of South America, and 111,000,000 of North America, 
and one is well-nigh appalled by the extent and char- 
acter of the problem faced. 

With these facts before us, we seem like the disciples 
when they stood face to face with the multitude of the 
famishing in the wilderness and heard the Master say, 
"They need not depart, give ye them to eat." For us 
the wilderness is peopled with those whose need is urgent, 
and the Master speaks to us and would make us the 
agents through whom the waiting multitudes shall be 
fed. 



CHAPTER II. 

ITS SOLUTION IS WITH THE CHURCH. 



The SOLUTION is with the CHURCH because the COMMAND has been 
given to HER: 
"Occupy till I come." — Jesus Christ. 

"Move to the fore. 
God Himself waits, and must wait, till thou come. 
Men are God's prophets though ages lie dumb. 
Halts the Christ-Kingdom, with conquest so near? 
Thou art the cause, then, thou man at the rear. 

Move to the fore!" — James Buckham, 



Doctor Judson Smith, then Secretary of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, said as long ago as 1887: "What 
hinders the immediate effort to plant the gospel in every nation and 
island and home in all the earth within the next few decades? Nothing 
but the faltering zeal and purpose of the mass of Christian believers 
now on the earth." Two and a half decades have passed, and still the 
nations wait because of the "faltering zeal and purpose of the mass of 
Christian believers." And how long must they wait? 

Only a year later, Doctor A. Sutherland, Secretary of the Mis- 
sionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada, thus expressed his 
conviction: "The power latent in the Churches, if properly utilized 
and directed, would be amply sufficient for the speedy evangelization 
of the world." Who is responsible for the fact that centuries will be 
required for what can be accomplished in a few decades? 

"Oh, let the message fly faster! 

The time is speeding away, 
And the thrilling voice of the Master 

Speaks, 'Work while 't is called to-day!' 
Then send forth the news of gladness, 

Let its echoes ring far and wide, 
And joy shall banish all sadness 

At the coming of harvest-tide!" 



CHAPTER II. 

The Solution of the Problem Is With 
the Church. 

Where else can its solution lie? To the Church has 
been given the command, "Go into all the world," 
"Disciple all nations," "Teach." The extent and nature 
of this commission are clear. The routine of the work 
is left to man. The ways and means of going, discipling, 
and teaching must be found by the Church, under the 
direction, it is true, of the Holy Spirit. Empowering 
and all needed guidance are assured, but God gives full 
scope for the use of every faculty and power man pos- 
sesses. The field is before the Church. Its oppressive 
need and its unlimited possibilities are at least a par- 
tially open book awaiting man's study, side by side, 
with the study of his Bible. Where the field is, what its 
need, how it may be cultivated most successfully, and 
how the capital and men needed for the work may be 
secured — these are questions for the Church. The solv- 
ing of the problems suggested here will give scope for all 
the consecrated talent the Church can command. 

The problem of world evangelization is the most 
far-reaching and difficult problem of all the ages. It 
demands for its solution the vision of the seer, the patient 
toil of the inventor, the exactitude of the mathema- 
tician, the genius of the greatest military leadership, 
the lofty devotion of motherhood, and the faith of child- 
hood. Here the haphazard, the short-sighted, the in- 
exact, the half-hearted will not do. A material universe 

255 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

can not be run thus, and earthly kingdoms demand 
system, far-sighted planning, and patriotism's loftiest 
devotion. Shall the Kingdom of God be builded in the 
face of the world's bitterest opposition without as ear- 
nest effort and as lofty a devotion? 

By the solution of the problem we do not mean the 
devising of a plan merely, though that is of command- 
ing importance, but the bringing to pass as well the 
results aimed at in the great program of world evangel- 
ization. In other words, the execution of that included 
in the problem must supplement the formulating of the 
plan how it shall be done. This is the work of the 
Church, and it is doubtful whether the failures of the 
past have not been more largely due to a neglect to get 
a practical plan to work by than to the shirking of the 
forms of activity. But to whichever point the greater 
failure may be charged, it is true that the best thought, 
devotion, and effort of the Church for nineteen centuries 
have not been devoted to the solution of this problem. 
It is also true that even the standard reached at the 
present day is below, and far below, the best of which 
the Church is capable. 

It may be safely asserted in this connection that the 
Church will never reach her best in service until she 
reaches her best in plan; and further, that the best in 
plan will embody a broader vision of the world-field, a 
deeper consecration to the great task, and a united front 
in all lands to the forces opposed to the Kingdom. To 
be more definite, we may say that there must be the 
unity of purpose, desire, and effort that the Spirit pro- 
duces in the heart; a falling into line of the whole Church 
in praying, giving, and serving; and further, that whole- 
hearted devotion to Christ and His cause shall so char- 
acterize His people that all Church life and activity 

256 



ITS SOLUTION IS WITH THE CHURCH. 

shall be determined thereby. Although we recognize 
the common heritage of human frailty, and its necessary 
bearing on this question, we can not admit that it can 
be legitimately made to cover the very general failure 
of the Church to meet the demands of the hour. Who 
believes that the Church can to-day legitimately excuse 
herself from answering the Macedonian calls from many 
lands, even though the calls be, as they surely are, well- 
nigh numberless? W 7 hen one sees the jostling of Chris- 
tian workers in the cities and towns of Christian lands, 
and great numbers who should be at work standing idle 
all the day, who can think for a moment that messengers 
of the gospel can be legitimately withheld from any 
land? Wlio that knows the piled up material resources 
controlled by those who bear Christ's name can excuse 
for a moment the leaving of any for whom Christ died 
without the blessing of His gospel? 

This problem will have no practical solution so long 
as the generation on the scene of action exalts money or 
ease or pleasure above the work of the Kingdom; so 
long as the Lord can not come to the possession of His 
own because those to whom He has committed the 
stewardship of the wealth of His earth claim ownership 
and control. A nobler generation must be trained up, 
and it is high time the work was in hand. The great 
crusade of the Church is on, but it will never be ac- 
complished until childhood is enlisted in the great under- 
taking. The great Carthaginian general, Hamilcar, 
could determine the attitude of the man Hannibal by 
taking the boy Hannibal to the temple altar and making 
him swear eternal hostility to Rome. Note the results 
in one of the great chapters of Carthaginian history. 
Consider what Hannibal suffered that he might try to 
humble Rome. The Church has a lesson to learn. The 
17 257 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

children within their influence must early be led to the 
altar of consecration, there to pledge eternal allegiance 
to the King of kings. The crusade is on, not to free an 
empty tomb from Moslem power, but a world of living 
men and women from superstition, idolatry, and sin. 
We have here a matter for serious thought. 

We do not wish to be misunderstood at this point. 
We do not discount the work the present generation is 
doing or underestimate what it can do. But the point 
we wish to emphasize is this, that we can not win the 
world to Christ as rapidly as we ought by trying to teach 
the middle-aged and the old. The children in our Sun- 
day schools, and banded together in various Church 
organizations, must be taught. While they learn the 
Ten Commandments that underlie the moral, social, and 
family life of nations, let them also be taught that later 
lesson that underlies the whole practical problem of the 
real life and work of the Church, " Honor the Lord with 
thy substance." We can not expect the wealth of the 
Church to be as fully consecrated to God as it should 
be until a generation has been raised up that has been 
taught to whom all wealth belongs and has come to 
recognize the principle of Christian stewardship. Does 
some one say, "But this means delay in establishing 
the Kingdom of God in all the world," and ask, "Must 
we wait to raise up thus the generation that shall have 
the joy of seeing the nations evangelized?" This means 
that the final triumph will not come to the Church that 
fails to honor God with its substance, that has again 
and again pulled down its barns to build bigger in order 
to get room to store its goods while the Lord's store- 
house is impoverished. 

It is time for us to think seriously and to plan for a 
campaign that shall last until the coming generation is 

258 



ITS SOLUTION IS WITH THE CHURCH. 

on the line of action — a campaign that looks to the 
raising up of a generation that shall recognize the fact 
of Christian stewardship. Where has the Church shown 
greater unwisdom than in allowing generation after gen- 
eration of the young to grow up with no sense of respon- 
sibility regarding the use of money for the glory of God? 
W r e can not wonder that the teaching that cuts at the 
root of human selfishness should have small results after 
self has been fully enthroned where Christ should rule. 
Our contention is this, then, that all our children and 
young people should be thoroughly instructed in this 
matter in the home, the Sunday school, the Church; 
that their training should be intelligently directed to 
the instilling of the principles underlying the Scriptural 
means of sustaining the Church of God in the world. We 
can not afford to leave this field any longer untilled. 
The children must be enlisted in the crusade of world 
evangelization, and the full-hearted service demanded 
by the needs of the hour waits on God's claims regard- 
ing money being recognized. 

We are well aware that difficulties beset this work. 
In many Churches, doubtless, such teaching will have 
scant encouragement for the reason that there has been 
no adequate preparation for it. In every Church, how- 
ever, a pastor who realizes the need should be able to 
gather at least a few about him who will be sympathetic 
and helpful. The pastor is the key to the situation. 
He must, in most cases, lead the campaign, and in every 
case his influence is essential to the largest success. 
Pastoral effort thus directed, if wisely and persistently 
put forth, will mean practical results all along the line 
of Church life and activity. In many places the atti- 
tude of parents and people prominent in the Church 
may make instruction difficult. This difficulty is, how- 

259 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ever, no greater than that experienced when children of 
non-Christian parents are instructed in the way of salva- 
tion. In this case it may prove true, as it often has, 
however, that "a little child shall lead them." If the 
principle be generally accepted, a long step will have 
been taken toward the result desired. And why should 
the principle not be accepted when it has its enunciation 
in the Word of God and stands vitally related to the 
great work of the Church in every land, as well as to its 
spiritual life? Let the childhood of the Church be 
trained along this line and a generation will come forth 
that will make such an advance on the kingdom of dark- 
ness as the world has not yet seen. The Church needs 
to apply business principles to the greatest business in 
the world to-day. Where shall the principles be sought 
except in God's Word, where the plan of world-con- 
quest is given; and how shall they be so successfully 
instilled as in the mind of the children. Let practical 
and systematic plan take the place of the unbusiness-like 
and irregular in the direction of the finances of the 
Church, and some of her greatest difficulties will be 
removed and her success be correspondingly increased. 



260 



CHAPTER III. 
PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 



Is the Church Prepared and Equipped for the World-Movement ? 

"The greatest need of the foreign field is a revised, reconsecrated, 
and unified home Church." — Benjamin Harrison. 

"We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, 
We have hard work to do and loads to lift; 
Shun not the struggle, 't is God's gift. 

Be strong." — Maltbie D. Babeock. 



"Learn thou the noble lesson, O my soul, 
To find in life's grand symphony thy part; 
And seek the soul harps in a darkened land 
To lay beneath the Master's skillful hand. 

"For myriad souls there are, on distant shore, 
O'er which the dust of sin has settled deep; 
Ah! could the tender Christ but brush away, 
And o'er the slumbering tones His finger sweep, 
A world would pause to catch the echoing chord 
Of music wakened 'neath the touch of God." 

"The connection between prayer and missions has been traced 
thus over the whole field of missionary conditions simply to show that 
every element in the missionary problem of to-day depends for its so- 
lution chiefly on prayer. The assertion has been frequently made in 
past years, that with twenty thousand men, properly equipped and 
distributed, the world could be evangelized in thirty years. And ac- 
tually there is need of an immediate, undaunted effort to secure twenty 
thousand men. Neither, perhaps, can the world be evangelized without 
them, nor can they be secured without effort. But it is hopeless to 
endeavor to obtain them, and they will be useless if obtained, unless the 
whole effort be inspired and permeated with prayer. 'Thrust Thou 
forth Thy laborers into the harvest.' . . . The evangelization of 
the world in this generation depends, first of all, upon a revival of 
prayer. Deeper than the need for men; aye, deep down at the bottom 
of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing 
world-wide prayer." — Doctor Robert E. Speer. 

"Not in dumb resignation 
We lift our hands on high, 
Not like the nerveless fatalist, 

Content to trust and die; 
Our faith springs like the eagle 
That soars to meet the sun, 
And cries exulting unto Thee, 
O Lord! Thy will be done!" 

— Bible Readers Calendar. 



CHAPTER III. 

Preparation and Equipment. 

World-conquest presupposes an army, trained, armed, 
equipped. This is true whether the conquest be phys- 
ical or spiritual. All great military leaders have builded 
their hopes of conquest on men — men imbued with the 
spirit of conquest, and armed, equipped, and trained. 
Their idea of conquest has embodied a struggle that 
would cost and cost heavily in effort, wealth, and life 
itself. They expected toilsome marches, hardships that 
would test the strongest, bloodshed, and even death. 
The prizes they sought in the conquest of other nations 
were deemed worthy of such toil, sacrifice, and suffering. 
The money needed for arms, equipment, support, and 
fortifications is, in such cases, provided without ques- 
tion. Love of country or devotion to some great prin- 
ciple is depended upon to secure volunteers for the cam- 
paign, while all material resources are provided by the 
State; but the people make the State, and they pay 
the bills. Are there any practical lessons for the Church 
of the living God to be drawn from the history of na- 
tions in the business of world-conquest? Are not the 
above points suggestive of the lines on which the Church 
must plan, the spirit needed, and the preparation and 
equipment required? 

World-conquest for Christ can not be expected with- 
out men and material resources, and back of these a 
spirit that thrusts out the men and assures the resources 
being made available. The great Head of the Church 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

provides the spiritual armor and the needed spiritual 
impulse when His people wait in His presence as did 
the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem. But the 
equipment in men and money must be provided by His 
Church. 

We have already seen something of the extent and 
character of the task which the Church is expected to 
perform. What resources has the Church to devote to 
this world-wide work? Striking an average between the 
highest and the lowest estimates of the numerical 
strength of the Protestant world, we have about one 
hundred and fifty million. Here is the base of supplies 
in men and money for the task. The Great Commission 
is binding on each one of these millions of men and 
women and children. To this great army the way has 
been opened into practically all lands. Eighty-three 
geographical societies have been helping to prepare the 
way of the Lord, and one hundred and fifty-three geo- 
graphical journals have been making the world-field 
known to the Christian Church. By great railway sys- 
tems access to large sections of all lands has been made 
possible without great expense or large expenditure of 
time. The slow travel by the sailing vessel of fifty years 
ago has given place to steamship lines that have con- 
tracted months to weeks. Cable and telegraph fines 
have facilitated the work of missions and are an asset 
of no mean value in the Christian propaganda. The 
literature already provided and literary agencies estab- 
lished; the educational institutions founded and the 
widespread educational facilities provided; the medical, 
charitable, and humanitarian agencies inaugurated — 
these organized agencies for furthering the interests of 
the gospel mean much in the line of preparation for the 
world program. 

264 



PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

Other facts, too, are worthy of note. In the provi- 
dence of God a large majority of the human race are 
now under the rule of Christian governments. Does it 
mean nothing that of the Moslems, for instance, only 
about eleven-fiftieths are under Moslem rulers, while 
five-eighths are subjects of Christian rulers? Does it 
count for naught that the two hundred millions of 
Hindus are living under a Christian government, and 
that the influence of Christian rulers reaches to vast 
sections of other great lands and to the isles of the sea? 
Then, too, the general spread of Western thought, the 
revelations of natural science, and of the science of 
geography, and a better knowledge of the world through 
the pages of history have done not a little towards under- 
mining some of the non-Christian systems. 

Doctor John R. Mott, in "The Evangelization of 
the World in this Generation," gives the following 
figures: "True value of all tangible property in the 
United States, exclusive of Alaska, in 1890, $65,037,- 
091,197. The pro rata share for the members of the 
Evangelical Churches, $13,000,000,000." And then 
states that of this they gave one dollar out of $3,287 
for foreign missions, or one-thirty -second part of one per 
cent, and further, that if, regardless of income, they had 
given one-two-hundredth part of the value of their real 
and personal property they would have given over 
$65,000,000, instead of less than $4,000,000. 

But wealth increased, and in 1898 Doctor Robert E. 
Speer estimated that the Evangelical Christians had as 
their share of the wealth of the country $20,000,000,000, 
and suggested that perhaps one-fiftieth of what the 
Church adds to her wealth year by year would suffice, 
in addition to what is now given, to support enough 
missionaries to evangelize the world. 

265 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

But the wealth has continued to increase, and, work- 
ing on the same principles, the Evangelical Churches 
controlled in 1910 npt less than $27,000,000,000. Fol- 
lowing a different line from the above at this point, we 
notice that if this wealth produces four per cent, and of 
the income produced one per cent be given to foreign 
missions, it would equal $10,800,000, an amount in 
excess of the amount actually given by about $2,800,000. 

A view from the standpoint of the increase of wealth 
may be suggestive. Doctor Howard Henderson, in 
"Wealth and Workmen," quotes from Scribner's Atlas 
the surprising figures that the wealth of the United 
States was increasing prior to 1890 at the rate of $6,800,- 
000 a day, and gives as the annual amount of the in- 
crease for Evangelical Christians $496,000,000. But 
the increase from 1900 to 1910 was $9,721,286 a day, 
or for Evangelical Christianity $729,653,864 a year. 
The amount contributed annually for that period was 
less than one per cent of this increase. 

Can we now get any suggestion of value from the 
amount of income derived from various sources? The 
value of farm products in the United States was, in 1910, 
$8,926,000,000. Counting one-fifth of this as belonging 
to Evangelical Christians, we have as their part $1,785,- 
200,000. If one per cent of this had been given to for- 
eign missions, it would have meant more than a doub- 
ling of the amount given for that purpose — namely, 
$17,852,000. Farm products are, however, only one 
item of income. 

If we turn to the manufacturing industries we find 
that in 1910 6,615,046 employees received in wages 
$3,427,037,884, of which Evangelical Christians must 
have received about $685,407,575. If this had been the 
only income of the membership, and one per cent had 

266 



PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

been given to foreign mission work, it would represent 
just about what was given. 

If now we combine the above items of income, we 
find that all the gifts of the Evangelical Churches of the 
United States for foreign missions equaled less than 
one-third of one per cent of the income of employees of 
manufacturing industries and the income from the farms, 
considering in each case only the part we may estimate 
to be under the control of Evangelical Christians. 

Note the following figures, too, for the year 1910 as 
suggestive of the resources of the United States, in 
which the Evangelical Churches share, and that are 
suggestive of the scale on which business is being carried 
on, namely: that the value of products of the manu- 
facturing industries is $20,672,051,870, and the value of 
output of all mineral products, $2,003,744,869. 

We have gone far enough to show that the Christian 
Church of the United States can not plead poverty as 
an excuse for not carrying on the work in all lands or 
urge limited resources as a reason for limited effort. Add 
to this, however, the fact that the aggregate savings 
deposits in savings banks is $4,212,583,598.53, and not 
less than $842,500,000 must have been to the credit of 
those who count themselves as Evangelical Christians. 
These figures may look large, but stop, please, a moment 
and remember that our study has been confined, in so 
far as resources are concerned, to one country only, the 
United States, and to one-seventh only of the Protestant 
Church of the world. While it would not be fair to 
increase all the figures seven-fold to show the ability of 
the entire Church to carry on the world-work, it is evi- 
dent that the one land represents only a comparatively 
small fraction of the equipment of the Church for her 
world-wide campaign. 

267 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

We must conclude, then, that along such lines as 
we have thus far studied the Christian Church is to-day 
prepared and equipped to a most marked degree for 
carrying on a campaign that shall know no limit except 
those set by the need of nations and peoples who still 
sit in darkness. But our study must go further. We 
must emphasize the great preparatory work already 
done in addition to the conditions that mark prepara- 
tion and equipment. 

The fact that the Bible is available in languages 
spoken by at least 1,200,000,000, or fully four-fifths of 
the human race; that about 7,000,000 native Christians, 
widely distributed in many lands, represent the direct 
fruits of Christian effort already gathered; that influ- 
ences are already set in motion that, working silently as 
the distilling of the dew, have revolutionized thought 
and attitude through wide circles; that Christian edu- 
cation has become a mighty factor in molding the young 
life of all great mission lands; that the Bible and re- 
ligious books, tracts and periodicals are being read by 
many millions who have not yet acknowledged Christ; 
that Christian hymns are rising from unnumbered homes 
and worshiping assemblies in the midst of the densest 
heathenism; that about 21,500 men and women from 
Christian lands live and labor in the midst of these 
darkened peoples, and that with them stand native 
Christian workers to the number of about 105,000 whose 
work is preaching the gospel of Christ and teaching 
the way of salvation; and that the fields are white unto 
the harvest in wide sections of almost all lands — these 
facts show to some degree the preparatory work done 
and the present equipment. 

We can not pass this subject without calling atten- 
tion to the limited use the Church is making of her 

268 



PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

marvelous equipment. Here comparisons may serve 
the purpose of impressing the fact that the Christian 
Church is not devising as liberal things as a speedy 
triumph demands. Counting the numerical strength of 
Evangelical Christianity as 150,000,000, and we find 
that the Church sends 1 out of 7,000 of its members on 
the mission of winning to Jesus Christ the millions of 
non-Christian lands, while for her army, on a peace 
footing, Great Britain sets apart one out of 84; Ger- 
many, one out of 95; France, one out of 66; Russia, 
one out of 136; and the United States, one out of 919. 
To go a step farther, Great Britain keeps about ten 
times as many men under arms during times of peace as 
the whole Protestant world puts into the field when her 
warfare is most urgent, and then about quadruples that 
force when actually engaged in war. The whole Prot- 
estant world is represented in its campaign in foreign 
lands by only one man or woman to each one hundred 
and twenty-six men the North sent to the battlefields 
of the South in the Civil War in the United States. It 
must be noted, too, that this missionary army includes 
wives of missionaries to the number of 5,934, and un- 
married women sent out by the various boards to the 
number of 5,725. One other fact is added, namely, that 
this force means that each man and woman faces, on 
an average, forty-five thousand who know not Christ. 
Can such an army be counted as worthy of the great 
Protestant Church with its wealth, its learning, its 
wondrous ability? 

Look at the subject in another way — from the stand- 
point of the money investment, comparatively consid- 
ered. The great Protestant Church, one hundred and 
fifty million strong, out of its untold wealth, enriched 
by uncounted mercies and blessings innumerable, looks 

269 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

upon the peoples who have no spiritual inheritance here 
and no hope for the future; hears the Great Commis- 
sion of its ascending Lord; prays day by day, "Thy 
Kingdom come;" sings, "I love Thy Kingdom, Lord;" 
and then shows its love for that Lord and its apprecia- 
tion of the Christian blessings of the life that now is and 
its hope of the eternal glory by giving as the average 
gift of its membership about twenty-one cents. As a 
sidelight on this picture, note that in the quarter cen- 
tury from 1878-1902 the per capita expense for war 
and warfare in the United States was about seven times 
as great, or one dollar and forty-nine cents; and notice 
that in this comparison the country selected spends less 
for war purposes, in proportion to the number of its 
people, than most lands called Christian. Does this 
look as though the Christian Church was indeed earnest 
in this work, and that a burning love for Christ actuated 
the rank and file of her membership? 

It may be urged at this point that the Church has a 
duty at home, that great cities with their commercialized 
vice, their poverty and crime, their great masses of 
human life under the influence of low ideals — that these 
demand the whole strength of the Christian Church. 
No missionary in a heathen land would minimize the 
importance of this work or the greatness of the task. 
But can Christian men reasonably claim that the Church 
lacks the ability to meet both demands? There are 
great principles that ought to have recognition. God 
does call men to foreign service and thrusts others into 
fields at home, and both are working under the Great 
Commission of their Divine Lord and Master. God 
also inspires His peoples to give to the foreign work, 
and many have found great blessing in giving; many 
Churches also and individuals have found that when 

270 



PREPARATION AND EQUIPMENT. 

they have broadened their sympathy, and love, and 
effort so that they have embraced all nations that a 
deepening of their spiritual life has resulted. Let the 
lesson be grasped and practically applied that obedience 
to God is the basal principle on which the life and service 
must be conducted, and no limit narrower than world- 
wide will be set to the effort of the Church — and the 
solution of the world-wide problem will be the result. 
Equipment? The Church of the living God has 
enough and to spare, in men and in material wealth as 
well, to assure the world-wide proclamation of the 
gospel by voice and printed page to all peoples every- 
where before the present century shall have reached its 
meridian. Why should the work lag? Why should 
people now ready to enter the fold of Christ be kept 
waiting outside? Why should coming generations of 
Christless people be forced to go down to graves unil- 
lumined by a single ray of light? Why should these 
things be? They should not be. They need not be. 
And when the Church of Jesus Christ grasps the Christ's 
idea and comes to possess the Christ's love, they will 
cease to be true. Our eyes are weary with beholding 
the masses of humanity in heathen lands bowing at 
heathen shrines and then going their way with no ray 
of light. Our ears are painfully sensitive to the din of 
the babel voices of heathen lands that strike no note of 
triumph or even hope. The heavy, shuffling tread of 
people whose brows are dark and lives heavily burdened 
by want and sorrow, superstition and sin falls like a 
nightmare on our spirits. Under the oppressive influence 
of the air heavy with the miasma of heathenism our 
hearts become heavy, and our hearts cry, "How long, 
O Lord, how long?" Such things will be until Christ's 
Church awakes to the need of these peoples and to a 

271 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

sense of responsibility and obligation that will drive 
away spiritual slumber and arouse a spirit of triumph 
that shall prevail until the triumphant shout of the 
whole army of the living God shall be, "The kingdoms 
of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord 
and of His Christ." 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE COST OF ITS SOLUTION. 



Absolute Devotion to Christ Will Solve the World Problem: 

"And to-day any man who would have Jesus Christ put Into 
his life the fire of His divine power must be willing to have Him do it 
at the price of a whole burnt offering of his life. For strength will always 
stand for each one of us in direct proportion to the degree of sacrifice 
required to purchase that strength." — Robert E. Speer. 

"O use me, Lord, use even me 

Just as Thou wilt, and when and where; 
Until Thy blessed face I see, 
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share." 

— Frances R. Havergal. 
18 



"Be strong! 
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, 
We have hard work to do and loads to lift; 
Shun not the struggle, face it, 't is God's gift. 
Be strong! 

"Be strong! 
Say not the days are evil — who 's to blame? 
And fold thy hands and acquiesce — O shame! 
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name. 
Be strong! 

"Be strong! 
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong, 
How hard the battle goes, the day how long; 
Faint not, fight on! To-morrow comes the song. 
Be strong!" — Maltbie D. Babcock. 

'Give, as the morning that flows out of heaven; 
Give, as the waves when the channel is riven; 
Give, as the free air and sunshine are given; 

Lavishly, utterly, carelessly give. 
Not the waste drops of the cup overflowing, 

Not the faint sparks of the hearth ever glowing, 
Not a pale bud from the June rose's blowing; 

Give as He gave thee who gave thee to live. 

'Pour out thy love like the rush of a river 
Wasting its waters, for ever and ever, 
Through the burnt sands that reward not the giver, 

Silent or soulful thou nearest the sea. 
Scatter thy life as the summer shower's pouring; 
What if no bird through the pearl-rain is soaring? 
What if no blossom looks upward, adoring? 

Look to the life that was lavished for thee. 

'Almost the day of thy giving is over. 
Ere from the grass dies the bee-haunted clover 
Thou wilt have vanished from friend and from lover; 

What shall thy longing avail in the grave? 
Give, as the heart gives whose fetters are breaking, 
Life, love, and hope, all thy dreams and thy waking; 
Soon Heaven's river thy soul-fever slaking, 

Thou shalt know God and the Gift that He gave." 

■ — Rose Terry Cooke, 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Cost of Solving the Problem. 

What will It cost to discharge the obligation laid upon 
the Church by the Great Commission? This question is 
natural and legitimate. It is not, however, right to 
condition obedience on its being easy to obey. Great 
results have always been conditioned on great invest- 
ments or expenditure. Discovery, scientific research, 
inventions, breaking down the slave trade, establishing 
civil and religious liberty, extending a humane and 
Christian civilization over savage tribes, pushing the 
battle against the liquor traffic, effort of all kinds against 
the wrongs of childhood — each of these is costly. The 
institutions, customs, and faiths of heathen lands may 
not be expected to yield to the gospel without a struggle 
and a struggle that will cost. 

No one would think of estimating the cost in dollars 
and cents of a campaign that has such problems to 
meet, such forces to overcome, and such results to reach 
as has the Christian propaganda. There are principles 
that may be recognized, however, and suggestive com- 
parisons that may be made. A warfare, the initial step 
in which cost the life of the Son of God — a warfare that 
seeks world-conquest in the name of the Prince of peace, i 
that is waged against all forces of evil and all the powers 
of darkness — such a warfare may be expected to involve 
tremendous cost. A study of the cost of the compara- , 
tively meager victories already gained gives no encour- 
agement to those who hope for an easy and inexpensive 

275 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

campaign. Admitting gladly that great things have 
been accomplished in many directions, the fact is before 
us that, while the mass of heathen peoples have in- 
creased by about two hundred million in a century, the 
Christian Church has not added more than ten million 
to its membership from heathenism in the same time. 
Note the further fact, also, that the greatest strongholds 
have not yielded to any great degree. This surely sug- 
gests that it is high time the Christian Church gave 
itself to a study of the problem, considered the cost, and 
delayed no longer to lay plans for world-conquest and 
to provide the men and money needed. 

We have been accustomed, perhaps, to look upon 
what is expended on foreign missions as a sum so large 
that the Church should congratulate herself on the 
greatness of her liberality. When we put down $8,000,- 
000 as the amount given by the Protestant Churches of 
the United States, and $32,000,000 for the Protestant 
Churches of all lands, it may look large. If, however, 
we stop and think that it means about twenty-one cents 
for each member of the Church — less than two cents a 
month — we should find little satisfaction in the amount 
in itself. 

When we record the total of men and women in for- 
eign missionary work as 21,477 we may feel elated, but 
when we remember that this means only one man and 
one woman at the front for more than 7,000 who rep- 
resent the base of supplies, then our elation must give 
place to depression. Note the following facts: Two 
cents a week per member for the Protestant Church 
would mean an annual sum of $156,000,000, while the 
amount given is about $32,000,000. Two cents a week 
per member for the Church in the United States would 
aggregate in the year $20,800,000, while the amount 

276 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

given has been about $8,000,000. Who can say that 
two cents a week — the bare cost of the postage on a 
single letter — would be a large amount for this great 
cause? Let it be noted that no such standard is here 
suggested. 

Please consider another fact. The increase of wealth 
of the Protestants of the United States, allowing to them 
their pro rata share, was, for the decade from 1890 to 
1900, $7,296,538,220, or for each year, $729,653,822. 
One per cent of this increase of wealth, or $7,296,838, is 
as much as the Church gave year by year during that 
period for the work of foreign missions. Does one per 
cent of the increase of wealth represent worthy giving 
for the work of winning non-Christian nations to Jesus 
Christ? Remember that no account is here taken of the 
increase of the 20,000,000 of people who give one per 
cent of the increase of the wealth for the salvation of 
the non-Christian world. 

Again consider that in the United States the per 
capita taxation on account of the army in time of peace 
is $1.49. Should the Christian give less to carry on the 
campaign his Lord is waging? But that would mean 
almost $30,000,000, or fully three times as much as is 
now given. 

Another viewpoint — the Christian Church member- 
ship of the United States spends about $21,000,000 a 
year on tea and coffee, or about two and one-half times 
as much as for foreign missions. This statement is not 
to be interpreted as a suggestion that too much is 
expended on the articles named, but to call attention 
to the fact that the gifts to foreign missions look small 
in such a comparison. Other comparisons along similar 
lines would suggest the same fact. 

Let us study the subject in a comparative way from 
277 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

another viewpoint. The standing army and naval force 
of the United Kingdom in times of peace is thirty-eight 
times that of the entire foreign missionary force of the 
whole Protestant Church, that of the United States 
fourteen times as great, and those of Germany and 
France seventy-one and fifty-six times as great respect- 
ively; while the standing armies of the leading countries 
of the world are in the aggregate three hundred and 
fifty-five times greater. With these figures in mind, 
does it seem a great thing for the Christian Church to 
make up an army of 21,500 men and women for foreign 
conquest? Note also that, while Great Britain and Ire- 
land employs one out of 95, and Germany one out of 84 
in the army in time of peace, the Christian Church sends 
out one out of 7,000 in time of aggressive warfare. 

Our next step is to note the cost of the armies earthly 
governments employ to safeguard their peace. Great 
Britain and Ireland for 1910-11 for army and navy 
expended £72,392,500, Germany over £58,000,000, 
France about £48,000,000. The eighteen leading coun- 
tries of the world spend approximately $1,750,000,000 a 
year on armies and navies on a peace footing, while 
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, 
and the United States spent $185,252,289 in two years 
for new warships alone, the former amount being more 
than thirty-eight times as much as all the foreign mis- 
sionary societies of the United States put into the foreign 
work from their establishment up to 1894, and the latter 
nine times as much. To specify a little farther, the 
United States paid in pensions on account of the Civil 
War about thirty-six times as much as these societies had 
expended up to 1894. 

Study the following on the cost of armed peace in the 
United States by the Hon. James A. Tawney, repre- 

278 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

sentative in Congress from Minnesota, in a speech 
at the National Peace Congress in Chicago, May 5, 
1909: 

"The total expenditure of the United States, Eng- 
land, Germany, and France during the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1908, on account of their armies and navies 
approximated, in round numbers, one billion dollars. 
Add to this the sum expended for the same purpose by 
other nations of the world and you will have a grand 
total cost of armed peace so large that the human mind 
can scarcely comprehend it. 

"The average annual appropriations for our army 
have leaped from less than $24,000,000 for each of the 
eight years immediately preceding the Spanish War to 
more than $83,000,000 for each of the eight years end- 
ing with the appropriations made at the last session of 
Congress for the fiscal year 1910. During the same 
period the average annual appropriations for our navy 
have increased from a little more than $27,500,000 to 
more than $102,400,000— $131,350,854 for 1910-11. In 
other words, the increase in appropriations for the 
army for the period named exceeded $472,000,000, a 
sum sufficient to cover the whole cost of constructing 
the Panama Canal, with nearly $150,000,000 to spare. 
The increase in the sums appropriated for the navy for 
these same periods approximated $600,000,000, a sum 
largely in excess of the total appropriations for the sup- 
port of our entire government for any fiscal year prior 
to 1898." 

Our next step takes us to the cost to governments 
when engaged in actual warfare. In the Boer War in 
South Africa Great Britain employed a force 200,000 
strong and spent $1,250,000,000 in two years. In the 
Civil War in the United States the North put into the 

279 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

field 2,656,000 volunteers and the South 1,100,000, and 
both sides expended about $5,250,000,000. 

In the Danish War of 1864 Denmark spent about 
£7,200,000, and Prussia and Austria about the 
same. 

The Prussian-Austrian War of 1886 cost £66,000,000. 
In the War of 1877-78 Russia spent over £161,000,000, 
and Turkey perhaps half as much. 

The Crimean War cost England £74,200,000; France, 
£66,400,000; Russia, £160,000,000; Austria, £13,720,- 
000; Turkey and Sardinia, £25,680,000; or a total of 
£340,000,000; and the indirect cost through loss has 
been estimated at the same figure, making the actual 
cost $3,400,000,000. 

In the War of 1859 France spent £15,000,000; 
Austria, £25,400,000; Sardinia, £10,200,000; or a total 
of £50,600,000. And finally Europe expended on war 
during the last half of the nineteenth century £1,211,- 
360,000. 

What do these figures suggest? Surely this, at least, 
that earthly governments expect to pay for their vic- 
tories, counting that victory worth gaining is worth 
what it costs. 

The Church of Jesus Christ is the earthly representa- 
tive of the Kingdom of God. It has been set for the 
defense of that Kingdom which is not of this world. It 
is commissioned as well to engage in an aggressive 
campaign that shall not cease until "the kingdoms of 
this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and 
of His Christ." Is the victory promised worth gaining? 
If it be worth while to establish principles of righteous- 
ness in the world, to bring in a day when peace shall 
prevail, love be triumphant, songs of joy replace the 
spirit of heaviness and the beauty of redeemed humanity 

280 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

the ashes of human hopes and possibilities, then the 
victory the Church is set to secure is worth while. 

What will it cost? Who can tell in the terms men 
employ in counting the cost of war — men and money? 
Who can tell? While no one can make even an estimate 
that would have weight, we can get down to underlying 
principles and stress them a little in such a study as this. 
We have seen how the results already gained have been 
gained by a fourfold investment, and that the investment 
has been by no means slight in the aggregate. But the 
service rendered in each age has been by the few and 
not by the many, comparatively speaking. In other 
words, the true spirit of service has not gripped the 
hearts of the rank and file of the Church down to the 
last man and woman and child so that it was a united 
army in the field of Christian conquest. Is it too much 
to say that the first item in the cost account of world- 
conquest in the name of Christ is the cost of presenting 
a united front to the hosts to be conquered? By this we 
mean that one spirit, the spirit of Jesus, shall actuate 
and impel forward every branch of the great army. 
This will cost just what a deeper devotion to God, a 
broader charity, a loftier ideal of life and service, and a 
life of prayer will cost, not in money, but in heart- 
searching, in self-renunciation, in self-denial, and in 
enthronement of Jesus Christ. 

The cost of carrying out the divine program of world- 
conquest is that of making Jesus first, His command 
and authority supreme. None of us can be in the line 
of battle ready for full-hearted service until Jesus has 
thus been recognized, and we have counted ourselves 
indeed His bond slaves by choice, yielding ourselves to 
Him in an abandon of love. What will this cost be? 
Perchance the entire reshaping of our life purposes and 

281 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

plans and a giving up of things most cherished and 
loved; and it may mean following Him where the 
whole being shrinks from going — to its Gethsemane and 
Calvary. It will, it must mean placing our very best at 
His disposal. 

"And is our best too much? friends, let us remember 
How once our Lord poured out His soul for us, 
And in the prime of His mysterious manhood 
Gave up His precious life upon the cross! 
The Lord of lords, by whom the worlds were made, 
Through bitter grief and tears gave us the best we have." 

Such an attitude towards God and His Kingdom 
may mean parents giving up their sons and daughters 
for foreign missionary service, and those young people 
going forth from home and loved ones. Who does not 
know of parents who have professed loyalty to Jesus 
Christ and prayed for the salvation of the heathen who 
have refused to give a son or a daughter to help answer 
their prayers? Full-hearted loyalty to the Lord Jesus 
Christ can only be evidenced by placing all upon His 
altar in sacrifice. 

The cost of world-conquest is the cost of unceasing 
devotion and effort. One must not put his hand to the 
plow and turn back. It is not by one act, though the 
act be helpful, nor by one gift, though the gift be of 
great price, that world-conquest can be gained. The 
service and the giving must not be irregular, spasmodic, 
according to feeling; but systematic, hearty, constant. 
How long must the service be rendered, how long the 
giving be continued? 

" ' Go, break to the needy sweet charity's bread, 
For giving is living,' the angel said; 
'And must I be giving again and again?' 
My peevish and pitiless answer ran. 
'Oh, no!' said the angel, piercing me through; 
'Just give till the Master stops giving to you.'" 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

While He continues to give can not we afford to 
give? While He continues to give, shall we withhold 
our gifts to Him? By the gift of Himself to us, by gifts 
of love as potent to our soul-life as the sunshine to the 
natural world, by gifts of love as numberless as the stars 
in the sky — by such gifts He has enriched our lives and 
is daily enriching them. Do our gifts to Him through 
His straying ones, through His "other sheep" whom 
He must bring through us — our gifts of time, of effort, 
of money — do these suggest that we love Him "with 
pure hearts fervently," with the abandon with which the 
child loves the mother? Would not such an abandon of 
love by the millions who make up His militant Church 
pile up the material resources needed for world-conquest 
until hands would be stayed by the glad proclamation, 
"The people bring much more than enough for the 
service of the work?" (Exodus 36:5.) Would it be 
possible if such love controlled the millions of the Church 
of Jesus Christ that only one out of seven thousand 
would respond to the call for work in the regions beyond? 

But how are we showing our loyalty to our Divine 
Lord and our sympathy with His great purpose? A 
further study of facts may give a yet clearer answer. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has been giving 
year by year an average per member of about seven 
dollars for all purposes, including ministerial support, 
incidental expenses, and church building; but the 
amount for pure benevolence has approximated one 
dollar only. Do such figures represent giving as God 
has prospered us — when seven dollars is a tithe of 
seventy dollars only, an amount that surely can not 
represent even one-half of the per capita income of the 
Church membership? 

Doctor Howard Henderson, in "Wealth and Work- 
283 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

men," says: "A Congregationalist authority, while be- 
lieving that the Congregationalists, with the exception 
of the Moravians, are the largest givers in the United 
States, estimates their annual gifts at four yer cent of 
their average income." 

Probably other Churches are on about the same 
plane in this respect as those mentioned. Can we expect 
world-conquest to be accomplished under such condi- 
tions? Where is the hardship, the sacrifice, the heart- 
break; where are the strain and stress, the self-denial 
and utter devotion that spell out to humanity such 
patriotism to Christ's Kingdom, such loyalty to His 
person as men are accustomed to see shown to an 
earthly government and to the earthly ruler? Where 
these are wanting men refuse to accept verbal testimony 
to supreme love, utter devotion, and unswerving loyalty 
on our part to the Great Captain of our salvation. 
The cost of world-conquest will never be paid except in 
a currency that means the sacrifice that testifies that 
Christ and His Kingdom have gained the supreme place 
in our hearts and lives. 

- Has the Church in its recent history reached in any 
of its parts results that show that such an idea has 
been grasped? Probably the Moravian Church comes 
the nearest to illustrating this point. Admitting that 
the Moravians have largely left the home work to 
other hands, and also that the entire policy adopted has 
lacked the breadth of vision needed for solving the prob- 
lems thrust upon the Church by the program for world- 
conquest in Christ's name, they stand forth as an inspir- 
ing illustration of what can be accomplished by deter- 
mined purpose and never-slacking effort. Doctor How- 
ard Henderson, in "Wealth and Workmen," says of 
them: "No sublimer spectacle ever drew earthward 

284 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

the admiring gaze of angels than the six hundred Mora- 
vian exiles who, though poor and persecuted, resolved 
on the conquest of the world for Christ. They pene- 
trated to the heart of Asia and planted their stations 
at the extremity of the Southern Peninsula; they set 
their tabernacles in the north of Africa and the Cape of 
Good Hope. They push through the ice-floes to Green- 
land and Labrador; they seize Guiana. Talk of the 
tomb of chivalry the three hundred Spartans built for 
themselves at Thermopylae, the charge of the Light 
Brigade 'into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell' 
at Balaklava! Their exploits and military martyrdom 
called for no such temper of courage as that which led 
this forlorn hope in its emprise for Christ." 

What are the facts regarding these people? They 
have been content to live without seeking to amass 
wealth. They number in their home Churches only 
about 30,000. Their home pastors only number 248. 
What have they done? They have sent out one out of 
50 of their members to the foreign field. They have 
built up a membership of 98,000 in foreign lands and 
raised up an army of workers there 1,767 strong. Their 
missionary service dates back to 1732, and they have 
been represented by 2,500 missionaries in foreign lands. 
And how much do they give for this work? About 
$250,000 a year, or an average of over $8 a member. 

If the Protestant Church in the United States should 
give one-fourth as much for foreign missions as the 
small section that bears the name Moravian does, the 
aggregate would be about $40,000,000, or a fivefold 
advance on what is now given. If the whole of the 
Protestant Church in all the earth should reach the 
same plane, about $300,000,000 would be poured each 
year into foreign mission treasuries. If the force sent 

285 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

forth to minister to the darkened peoples of heathen 
lands should be one-fourth as great, comparatively 
speaking, as that of the Moravian Church, the Prot- 
estant Church of the United States would keep an army 
100,000 strong at the front, and the entire Church would 
be represented by 750,000 missionaries in foreign 
lands. 

Do the above figures look large? Say not that they 
represent more than the Church of Jesus Christ can do. 
Armies and treasuries whose strength and resources are 
expressed by small figures do not and can not be reason- 
ably expected to stand for the cost of world-conquest for 
Christ. 

It may be urged that too much emphasis is being 
placed upon the human side — upon men and money — 
and that the divine side is being ignored. But the 
human and material elements are emphasized in the 
Word of God, and what we plead for is that there shall 
be response that shall show loyalty to Christ, devotion 
to His Kingdom, obedience to His great command. 
After the Church has thus fallen into line and thrust out 
a great army and poured out its treasure to carry on the 
campaign, the spiritual harvest can only come to its 
whiteness under the power of the Holy Spirit. But the 
Spirit of power needs men to empower, and, despite His 
presence in the world, the cry still goes forth regarding 
the Christless peoples, "How shall they hear without a 
preacher?'' The further question, too, presses upon the 
Church to-day, "How shall they preach except they 
be sent?" 

We have a strong conviction that the adoption of 
the Scriptural principles of supporting the Church of 
Jesus Christ and His work in the world would solve, so 

286 



THE COST OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM. 

far as it is a financial matter, the problem of Christian 
conquest of the world. If four per cent of the income of 
the membership of the Church will accomplish at home 
and abroad what is now being done, what would the 
giving of a full ten per cent mean to the world-wide 
work? 

But is such a standard too high? Surely it is not 
too high if it be God's plan for His people. If their 
smallness of income be considered, many heathen people 
expend enough on their idolatrous worship, prompted 
largely by fear, to put to shame the Christian World 
in its giving under the declared impulse of love. 

It is claimed that the Chinese people spend $100,- 
000,000 a year on ancestor worship. We are told that 
"No day begins without an offering to the idol and no 
meal is eaten until a portion is set aside for the god." 

We read, too, of a heathen woman saying to the 
missionary, "Well, I worship God, too, but I take a few 
sticks of incense when I pray. It seems so mean to go 
before Him with just nothing." 

We know, too, that the children in heathen lands 
are taught from infancy to bring their gifts to the idol 
worshiped. 

These heathen systems cost their people heavily, and 
give them nothing in return. They give to appease the 
wrath of a terrible god. They lack the constraining 
power of love, the impulse of gratitude, the inspiration 
of the thought of world-conquest and the uplift of the 
anticipation of the crown of eternal life. With such an 
outlook as we have, how ought we to labor and to give? 
Fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, can not we get the 
vision we ought to get of Christ's great plan and our 
part in its accomplishment? 

287 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

What will it cost to solve the problem of world-con- 
quest? It will cost what true discipleship to Jesus Christ 
will cost, for true discipleship means the hearing of His 
voice and doing whatsoever He saith, under the impulse 
of His Spirit. 



288 



PART IV.— INTERROGATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT IS THE TRUE MISSIONARY IN- 
CENTIVE? 



The True Incentive is Found in Love to Jesus Christ: 

"For the love of Christ constraineth us." — Apostle Paul. 

"Observe the true motive for Christian work. The Lord did not 
say to Peter, 'Lovest thou the work?' or 'Lovest thou My lambs?' but 
'Lovest thou Me?' for the most potent principle in the Christian heart 
is love to Christ." — William M. Taylor, D. D, 
n 



"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal 
life." — Jesus Christ. 

"The bread that giveth strength I want to give; 
That water pure that bids the thirsty live; 
I want to help the fainting day by day; 
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way." — Selected. 

"How many sheep are straying, 

Lost from the Savior's fold? 
Upon the lonely mountain 

They shiver with the cold; 
Within the tangled thickets, 

Where poison vines do creep, 
And over rocky ledges 

Wander the poor lost sheep. 
O come, let us go and find them, 

In the paths of death they roam; 
At the close of the day 't will be sweet to say, 

'I have brought some lost one home!' 

"O, who will go to find them? 

Who, for the Savior's sake, 
Will search, with tireless patience, 

Through briar and through brake? 
Unheeding thirst or hunger, 

WTio still, from day to day, 
Will seek, as for a treasure, 

The sheep that go astray? 
O come, let us go and find them, 

In the paths of death they roam; 
At the close of the day 't will be sweet to say, 

'I have brought some lost one home!'" 



CHAPTER I. 

What Is the True Incentive? 

What is the true incentive to Christian service? This 
question is important because there must be impelling 
power before there can be service, and a true incentive 
must lie back of the best service. What has impelled 
men and women in the past to earnest effort to win the 
world to Christ? What can be depended upon to-day 
to inspire the people of God to such service as the world 
needs and the great Head of the Church demands? 
These questions we believe to be fundamentally im- 
portant. 

The writer has often heard remarks made the pur- 
port of which was, that if the need of the world-field is 
set before the Church, the task of enlisting her member- 
ship in the work of saving the non-Christian world will 
have been accomplished. We admit that a true por- 
trayal of the condition and consequent need of Christ- 
less peoples everywhere must make a strong appeal to 
the followers of Christ. The fact stands, however, that 
a knowledge of need does not bring the response in 
either money or men that is demanded if the need is to 
be met. Our eyes become so accustomed to the densest 
darkness of heathen lands that our hearts are not 
moved to sympathy deep enough to rouse to action 
earnest, whole-hearted, world-wide, and constant. He 
who puts his hand to the plow under the impulse will 
look back before life's close. And yet we ought to know 
the need and have all the sympathy it can arouse. 

291 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Then, too, there is a grandeur in the idea of world- 
conquest that must appeal to people. This is true 
whether the conquest sought is over nations by force 
of arms, over minds by logic and eloquence, or over 
hearts by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Who 
can read the history of victories gained along these lines 
without a quickened pulse and a thrill of desire to en- 
gage in such a warfare? There is exaltation in the 
thought, and a man under the impulse of its very 
grandeur dreams dreams of noble conquest. But how 
often he drops to his normal plane of living before he 
goes beyond the stage of dream and vision. 

To some, also, the resultant in reward and glory 
appeals with no little force. The thought of hearing 
the Master say, "Well done," and the promise of shin- 
ing as the stars for ever and ever as the result of turning 
many to righteousness ought to give strong leverage on 
hearts that aspire to great things. We face the fact, 
though, that the great Christian workers of the world 
have not done their work under any impulse that is 
selfish at the core. 

And how about the joy of service? Have we a clue 
here to the true incentive? By no means, for joy is a 
result of, but to no large degree an impelling power to 
service. The experience of Christian workers does not 
crystallize into the testimony, "The joy of service con- 
straineth me to serve the Lord Christ." 

In whitened fields, too, we find a peculiar inspira- 
tion. Whitened fields are, however, allowed to go un- 
harvested, while men and women who bear the name 
of Christ stand all the day idle, saying, "No man hath 
hired us," or else sleep the sleep of indifference while an 
enemy never indifferent works his work of destruction. 

We now get back to the divine command, "Go ye," 



WHAT IS THE TRUE INCENTIVE? 

"teach," "preach," "disciple all nations." What more 
does the servant need to thrust him out to do all his 
Master's will than that Master's command? But for 
almost nineteen centuries that command has been fall- 
ing upon the ears of the disciples of Jesus, and yet the 
cry is the same as in the days when He lived, "The la- 
borers are few." Yes, and because they are few fields 
dead-ripe await in their whitened beauty the coming of 
the reapers who should come, but, in spite of the divine 
command, come not. 

If we want an answer to our inquiry clear-cut and 
practical, let us hear the great apostle to the Gentiles 
when he bears his testimony to the Corinthians, "For 
the love of Christ constrains us." A knowledge of the 
need of heathen peoples may move to tears, and even 
lead to action to a certain degree, but the love of Christ 
filling the heart can alone be relied upon to move to life- 
long service. A vision of the glory of world-conquest 
in the name of Christ may fire the imagination, but the 
heart must be made aflame with divine love before life 
itself is burned out in serving. The reward may appeal, 
but its appeal will be lost in other voices unless love 
controls the central forces of the being. The joy of 
service may tide one over many a hard place in the field 
where he toils, but the love of Christ is the only power 
that can hold him to his task through all the experiences 
of Christian service. A view of whitened fields may 
arouse us so that we begin the day's task, but nothing 
less than the constraining love of Christ can hold us 
through the heat of the noontide and while the shadows 
lengthen; yes, and the divine command may thrust out, 
but what can hold one to his task except the love that 
held Jesus through the darkness of Gethsemane and the 
agony of Calvary? 

293 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

Why did the Apostle Paul hold on his course in spite 
of stripes and imprisonments, perils by sea and by land, 
hunger and weariness? Why did Livingstone brave the 
dangers of Africa, and Williams and Chalmers of the 
South Sea Islands? Why did Mackay and Moffat and 
Paton remain at the post of duty when life was in peril? 
Why did Melville Cox drag his diseased body into the 
deadly African Continent, and David Brainerd lay down 
his life at twenty-nine in toil for the salvation of the 
American Indians? And why, we ask, has a host of 
men and women in every age counted not their lives 
dear unto themselves as they have sought to make 
Christ known to Christless peoples? The answer to all 
these questions is the same — the constraining love of 
Christ. Here we have an impelling power that is strong 
enough to thrust out men and women into the world- 
field and to hold them to their task in spite of all oppos- 
ing forces. If the whole Christian Church were to get 
in such vital relation to Jesus Christ that His love would 
become the constraining power in their lives, there would 
be no lack of men and women to give the gospel to every 
creature or of money to pay all the expenses of the 
campaign that would be waged. 

There is no more vital question for the Church to-day 
than that relating to the generating of the spirit that 
makes for world-conquest. Why is this spirit wanting 
in large sections of the Church? Why is it that so many 
do not believe in foreign missions and give but meagerly, 
if they give at all, to this great work? Why is there not 
generally throughout the Church a broadness of vision 
that takes in the whole race, and more of the burning 
zeal that would push the battle in every land in spite of 
the forces that oppose the advance of the Church of 
Christ? We can not escape the conviction that the 

294 



WHAT IS THE TRUE INCENTIVE? 

teachers of young Christians too largely overlook the 
most vital feature of their work. Where the heart has 
been truly converted to God the love of Christ begins 
its work of impelling to service. Then is the time to 
cultivate breadth of vision. It is easy then to love all 
peoples, and the appeal of the great need of people 
without Christ becomes potent. To direct such a per- 
son's thought to a single community means to decrease 
by turning into narrow channels a love that needs chan- 
nels world-wide for its exercise. To such an one the 
natural outgoing of whose heart-life finds expression in 
Charles Wesley's cry: 

" O, that the world might taste and see 
The riches of His grace; 
The arms of love that compass me 
Would all mankind embrace!" 

there is sure to come a narrowness of vision that results 
in a decrease in spiritual life until he sings with William 

"Where is the blessedness I knew 
When first I saw the Lord? 
Where is the soul-refreshing view 
Of Jesus and His Word." 

Is it not safe to say that if the instruction of thfc 
young for which we plead were earnestly pressed after 
every revival in the Churches of Christendom, that 
there would be less of lament later on because results are 
not permanent, while great awakenings would become 
more general, and hearty and prompt response could 
be given to the calls from many lands? When the love 
of Christ constrains the whole Church, no open doors 
will remain unentered, no Christless people await the 

295 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

first glad message of salvation, and no field white unto 
the harvest be neglected. In this great work the very 
mind that was in Christ Jesus is surely the great need. 
Realizing this, shall we not pray? — 

"O grant us love like Thine, 
That hears the cry of sorrow 

From heathendom ascending to the Throne of God; 
That spurns the call of ease and home 
While Christ's lost sheep in darkness roam. 

"O grant us hearts like Thine — 
Wide, tender, faithful, childlike — 

That seek no more their own, but live to do Thy will — 
The hearts that seek Thy Kingdom first, 
Nor linger while the peoples thirst. 

"O grant us minds like Thine, 
That compassed all the nations, 

That swept o'er land and sea and loved the least of all, 
Great things attempting for the Lord, 
Expecting mighty things from God." 



296 



CHAPTER II. 
WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT WINS? 



World-Conquest for Christ Calls for a Spirit that Determines Action: 
"Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." — Apostle Paul. 

"Anywhere, provided it be forward." — David Livingstone. 



"Put any burden upon me, only sustain me. 
Send me anywhere, only go with me. 
Sever any tie but the one that binds me 
To Thy service and to Thy heart." 

— Fly-leaf, Miss Brigham's Bible. 

"If I had ten lives, I would gladly lay them down for Christ in 
Sierra Leone, the white man's grave, but, by the grace of God, the black 
man's resurrection." — Canon Taylor Smith. 

"Fired with a peculiar zeal, they defy 
The rage and vigor of a Greenland sky, 
And plant successfully sweet Sharon's rose 
On icy fields, and 'mid eternal snows." — Selected. 

"Dear Jesus, why did You not send me the message of Your great 
salvation while I was a little girl? I could then have learned to read 
Your Holy Book and could have told my people about it. You have 
done so much for me. I wish I could do something for You. But, dear 
Jesus, I am only an old woman now, and I can not read. I can not do 
much, but You shall have all my life that I have left." — Mursama, an 
aged village woman in India. 



CHAPTER II. 

What Is the Spirit That Wins? 

It is fair to conclude that the spirit that has won in 
the past will win to-day and will not fail in the future. 
That spirit has often been voiced in words, more often 
still displayed in deeds. It has had a place in the world 
ever since Jesus said, "I lay down My life for the sheep," 
and then, after toil and weariness to the limit of human 
endurance, and after bearing a heart-burden that, un- 
like that of the wooden cross, could not be laid on an- 
other, literally laid down His life for man. No double 
portion of His spirit could fall on a disciple, but in every 
age some have caught a vision of the Christ-love and the 
world-need and of personal responsibility that has meant 
in their words and life some reflection of the Spirit that 
actuated Him. We wish briefly to call attention to the 
exemplification of that spirit in a few of His followers. 
Stephen, called to serve tables, speedily caught the 
impulse to wider service and gave himself to it with a 
spirit of such abandon that the fury of the mob was 
aroused so that they stoned him to death while he be- 
held the vision of his ascended Lord. The world saw it 
in the life and labors of the Apostle Paul, and thousands 
have been roused to a nobler spirit as they have read 
his exclamation, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel," 
and his stalwart declaration when perils pressed hard 
upon him, "None of these things move me, neither 
count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish 

299 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have 
received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the 
grace of God." These early disciples were the fore- 
runners of a host larger, perhaps, than we think that 
entered into the Spirit of their Lord and followed in 
His steps. Knowing, as we do, how this Spirit was dis- 
played in the early Church, we may be tempted to think 
it was peculiar to that time. No greater mistake could 
be made. While it has never been so general as the 
great need of the world-field demanded, there has been 
no age when it has not mightily influenced at least 
some sections of the Church. We call attention here to 
a few facts and testimonies that show the presence of 
the same spirit in recent times. 

Let David Livingstone speak to us to-day as he 
spoke to the students at Cambridge University: "I 
never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk 
when we remember the great sacrifice which He made 
who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself 
for us; who, being the brightness of His Father's glory, 
and the express image of His person, and upholding all 
things by the word of His power, when He had by Him- 
self purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high." Put with this declaration the fact 
that his life purpose centered in the thought of making 
a way for Jesus through darkest Africa and that he 
never turned aside from that purpose. Have we not in 
David Livingstone a wonderful exhibition of the spirit 
that is needed in Christian conquest — the spirit that is 
bound to win? 

And next let us listen to another voice. It is the 
voice of prayer, and is wafted from far-off Fiji — the 
voice of John Hunt as he lay dying: "Lord, bless Fiji! 
Save Fiji! Thou knowest my soul has loved Fiji; my 

300 



WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT WINS? 

heart has travailed in pain for Fiji!" And hear him yet 
again as he draws nearer to the gates of death: "0, 
let me pray once more for Fiji! Lord, for Christ's sake, 
bless Fiji, save Fiji!" Who wonders that with laborers 
of such a spirit Fiji was brought to Christ? 

Note the spirit of another, that first and great mis- 
sionary to the Moslems, Raymund Lull: "As a hungry 
man makes dispatch and takes large morsels on account 
of his great hunger, so Thy servant feels a great desire 
to die that he may glorify Thee. He hurries day and 
night to complete his work in order that he may give 
up his blood and tears to be shed for Thee." His words 
may sound strange to us, but the Spirit is not hard to 
discern — the spirit that puts Jesus and His work first 
and counts not life as dear. 

In the long list of incidents that illustrate the spirit 
that makes for conquest, note that where Robert Moffat, 
when his life and mission were threatened by an African 
chief, threw open his waistcoat and, standing before 
him erect and fearless, said, "If. you will, drive your 
spear to my heart; and when you have slain me, my 
companions will know that the hour has come for them 
to depart." W T hat wonder that the chief was cowed 
and that he said to his attendants, "These men must 
have ten lives. Where they are so fearless of death 
there must be something of immortality." 

What can be expected to withstand such a spirit as 
that displayed in the above incidents or that apparent 
in the three that follow? 

The first of the three is the declaration of joy in 
humble, Christly service by a medical missionary: "I 
like the work immensely. I would rather wash old leg 
ulcers daily in my hospital than to be struggling after 
some worldly fame in the profession at home, for my 

301 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

work here will bring more souls to Christ and help more 
to advance God's Kingdom." 

We may well rejoice that the spirit evidenced in the 
foregoing pages has not been confined to those whom the 
world has recognized as leaders in the great world move- 
ment. The same spirit has often been displayed by those 
whose lives are counted circumscribed and humble. 
Doctor John P. Durbin was accustomed to tell of a 
Moravian mother who caught the spirit displayed by 
the Master when He gave all to save the world: "A 
friend in much sadness said to her, 'Your son is gone!' 
'Is Thomas gone to heaven through the missionary 
life? Would to God that He would call my son John!' 
John went, and died. The committee were sad; but 
the old lady anticipated them, and exclaimed, 'Would 
that He would call my last son, William!' William 
went, and fell. Then she exclaimed, 'Would that I had 
a thousand sons to give to God!"* 

Put side by side with the above the words of a 
Chinese mother to her son when she realizes that he 
will soon be put to the test whether he will give up his 
Christian faith to save his life, "If you deny your faith, 
I will no longer recognize you as my son." 

Again a Chinese Christian is the speaker, and he 
faces those who seek his life: "You may not only be- 
head me, but cut my body in fragments. Every por- 
tion, if you should ask it, would answer that it was a 
Christian." 

The spirit that we have been seeking to illustrate 
has not been limited to age, but youth has been actuated 
to heroic stand for Christ by it. We cite a Chinese 
girl as the representative of a class by no means small. 
Her words are in answer to those who demand that she 
burn incense in the temple or be put to death : " I can not 

302 



WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT WINS? 

burn incense, for I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid, 
even though you kill me, for I shall go straight to my 
Heavenly Father." 

In this connection Stanley's tribute to Mackay is 
appropriate. He wrote as follows: "He had no time to 
fret and groan and weep. And God knows if ever man 
had reason to think of graves and worms and oblivion, 
and to be doleful and lonely and sad, Mackay had when, 
after murdering his bishop and burning his pupils, strang- 
ling his converts and clubbing his dark friends to death, 
Mwanga turned his eye of death on him. And yet the 
little man met it with calm blue eyes that never winked. 
To see one man of this kind working day after day for 
twelve years bravely and without a syllable of complaint 
or a moan amid the wilderness, and to hear him lead 
his little flock to show forth God's loving kindness in the 
morning and his faithfulness every night is worth going 
a long journey for the moral courage and content one 
derives from it." 

A volume might easily be filled with incidents and 
personal testimony that reveals the true spirit of con- 
quest. But we must close this subject with two brief 
incidents that come from the very heart of heathendom 
and show that this spirit has as fine illustrations there 
as it has in the case of peoples who have the heritage 
of a Christian ancestry. 

In the development of the work in the South Sea 
Islands it was proposed to open work on a new island. 
An effort was made to deter the native teacher named 
Tapeso by saying, "There are alligators on Murray 
Island, and snakes and centipedes." "Hold," said 
Tapeso, "are there men there?" "O yes, there are 
men, of course; but they are such dreadful savages 
that there is no use to think of living among them." 

303 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

"That will do," replied Tapeso; "wherever there are 
men, missionaries are bound to go." 

When in the same region it seemed well-nigh im- 
possible to open work on Rarotonga, a Christian named 
Papheiha leaped into the sea to swim ashore, saying, 
"Whether the savages spare me or kill me, I will land 
among them. Jehovah is my shield; I am in His hand." 

Some one has said that "graves are needed in mis- 
sion lands." But are there not graves? If the remarks 
mean that each of these heathen lands needs a loyalty 
to Christ and devotion to Him and the darkened peoples 
He would save that will not fail while life lasts and that 
will suffer martyrdom or burn itself out in service, then 
we say that this need has been met in all these lands. 
Graves needed? There are graves. Where is the land 
of darkness into which the followers of Christ have been 
able to press their way that does not hold the sleeping 
dust of some who faltered not but yielded up life itself 
for Christ and the salvation of the heathen? How many 
sleep their last sleep where heathen people pass in 
throngs their quiet graves, no man can tell. These 
graves may speak to many who pass by, but there is a 
place graves can not fill and a work they can not do. 

Do mission lands need graves? Mission lands need 
men and women who are willing to fill graves but who 
are alive in every fiber of their being to the great need 
of the heathen nations and who possess the spirit we 
have been attempting to emphasize. We go a step 
further and say that the need of heathen lands will not 
be fully met while Christian parents in Christian lands 
fail to train up their children into the spirit of world- 
conquest and even check all impulse in that direction. 
Parents who can not go need to have a spirit that 
prompts them to send forth the young people of their 

304 



WHAT IS THE SPIRIT THAT WINS? 

homes to fight the battle of the Cross in any and every 
land. 

Who can tell how many young people there are who 
get a vision of opportunity and responsibility from the 
very throne-room of the King who are kept from obe- 
dience to the heavenly vision and whose lives will never 
know the real glory that might have been theirs — and 
all because fathers and mothers who are called Christians 
discourage and sometimes even forbid their boys and 
their girls to go forth under the impulse of the Spirit of 
God. Contrast with that spirit that of the mother who, 
when word reached her that her son had been killed and 
eaten by cannibals, said, between her sobs as she lifted 
her streaming eyes toward heaven, "Praise the Lord 
that He ever gave me so good a son! Had I another 
like him I would send him to preach salvation to the 
savages that feasted on his flesh." Compare this with 
the attitude of many fathers and mothers who bear 
Christ's name and pray for the salvation of non-Chris- 
tian peoples but will not consent that their sons and 
daughters shall go to the heathen lands. 

What would such a spirit as has been illustrated 
above mean in the practical work of building the King- 
dom of God in the earth? What would it mean in 
respect to securing volunteers for the great campaign 
against the kingdom of darkness? What would it mean? 
It would mean that young men and young women would 
crowd forward as volunteers until there should be no 
lack of laborers in any land. It would mean that Chris- 
tian parents would rejoice when sons and daughters 
offered for foreign service, and send them forth, with 
tears, it might be, but with hallelujahs of praise to God 
who counted them worthy of a place in the forefront of 
the battle. 

20 305 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

And what would the same spirit mean in respect to 
money for the work? We all know what it would 
mean — that it would mean filled treasuries and eager 
inquiries from the Lord's stewards where money could 
be invested to further the interest of the Kingdom. 
The heroic in the devotion of both life and money has 
not been wanting in the history of the Christian move- 
ment, but to-day there is a call for a thousand-fold in- 
crease of that spirit in the Church. In its final analysis 
the spirit that wins is the spirit of Jesus, who, though 
rich, became poor for the sake of the world of humanity, 
and then gladly laid down His life that man might live. 

Well may we pray that the mind that was in Christ 
Jesus may become the mind in His Church. 



306 



CHAPTER III. 

WILL THE WORLD MOVEMENT PAY? 



The World Movement is God's Program for His People: 

"To obey is better than sacrifice." — The Prophet Samuel. 

"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; 
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever." — The Prophet Daniel. 



"Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye 
blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; 
I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me 
in; naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was 
in prison, and ye came unto Me. . . . Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me." — Jesus Christ. 

"That man may last, but never lives, 
Who much receives but nothing gives; 
Whom none can love, whom none can thank 
Creation's blot, creation's blank. 

"But he who marks from day to day 
In generous acts his radiant way, 
Treads the same path the Savior trod, 
The path to glory and to God." 

"Really our missionary enterprise, the missionary enterprise of the 
Church of God in England, is the very salt of our civilization. Wherein 
lies our safety? In spiritual magnanimity! If you want to take care of 
your empire, take care of your missions." — Doctor W. L. Watkinson. 

"'What shall I do to be forever known?' 
'Thy duty ever.' 
'This did full many who yet sleep unknown.' 

'O, never, never! 
Thinkest thou perchance that they remain unknown 

Whom thou know'st not? 
By angel trumps in Heaven their praise is blown. 
Divine their lot.' " 



CHAPTER III. 

Will the World Movement Pay? 

To ask this question is to ask whether it will pay to 
obey God; to relieve distress, mental, spiritual, phys- 
ical; to uplift womanhood and give childhood its due in 
pure teaching, noble example, and elevating ideal; to 
turn back the tides of oppression and wrong that sweep 
over barbarous peoples; to protect the weak, assure to 
the aged and sick loving care and attention, and to the 
dying hope for the future; to establish good government; 
to safeguard the home; to do away with war; to destroy 
intemperance and vice — in a word, whether it will pay 
for those who have been blessed by God to be obedient 
to His command, "Be thou a blessing!" 

To ask such a question must be to the thinking of 
all truly awakened and loyal people to answer it. To 
such no arguments, no array of facts is needed. They 
have learned better than to consider such a question in 
the light of personal pecuniary gain or even with refer- 
ence to one's own community or Church or country. 
They have studied in a school where they have been 
taught to count the promises of God of future rewards 
in commendation, and in a glorious inheritance, as 
prizes of inestimable value. Happy is the man who has 
studied in the school of Christ until he has learned to 
regard the real uplift of humanity and His Master's 
approval a sufficient reward for his service. To such a 
man the Bible with its exceeding great and precious 
promises has a larger place in his thoughts than the 

309 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

ledger, and his own business has become of worth only 
as related to the business of his Lord and Master. 

We fear, however, that to the great majority the 
establishing of the Kingdom of God among men is a 
thing of secondary importance, and that the thought of 
world-conquest does not appeal unless it will pay in 
houses and lands and increased bank account. 

The purpose of this chapter is to call attention to 
facts that ought to serve as an affirmative answer to 
this question, "Will it pay?" 

We have already studied the results to commerce 
and seen that the Christian movement has been profit- 
able to the world's business. It has paid in dollars and 
cents to evangelize savage peoples. It is said to have 
cost about $1,200,000 to Christianize the people of the 
Sandwich Islands, and the United States receives back 
from $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 a year in commerce. Did 
it pay to expend the amount named and get an annual 
return of four to five fold of the investment? England 
has been receiving from the South Sea Islands year by 
year ten pounds for every pound she has been expending 
on Christianizing the people. Has it paid England to 
invest the one pound? The United States has been re- 
ceiving from Micronesia forty dollars a year for every 
dollar spent on missions there. Did it pay to give the 
gospel to these islands? Go back, please, and read fig- 
ures given in the chapter on commerce and the testi- 
monies of business men and government representatives 
and see if there be not sufficient ground for underscoring 
our answer to the question at the head of this chapter. 
The Christian propaganda pays in a commercial way. 

This side of the question is not presented with a view 
to encourage contributions to the missionary cause un- 
less it be as an expression of gratitude on the part of 

310 



WILL THE WORLD MOVEMENT PAY? 

men who have become rich as the direct result of Chris- 
tian missions, but who did not contribute to the spread 
of that gospel that had the power to thus enrich them. 
No giving for the sake of temporal gain in return is here 
encouraged; but ought there not to be given back at 
least a tenth of the hundreds and thousands of millions of 
dollars directed into commercial channels towards Chris- 
tian lands; ought not at least a tenth of it go back as a 
thank-offering to further bless and uplift humanity 
dwelling in heathendom? 

We are not content, however, to say the Christian 
movement has paid in a financial way. It is true, and 
such a view stands to the large credit of Christianity; 
but it is narrow, low, and sordid. If that were the only 
way in which the Christian propaganda had paid, we 
might well question its real benefit to humanity, for it 
would then have ministered to human greed and selfish- 
ness. But there are other phases of profit — profit that 
can not be put in figures with the sign of dollars or 
pounds prefixed. 

Our study has already emphasized educational, lit- 
erary, social, and humanitarian results. Surely all lovers 
of humanity will grant that where gold is transmuted 
into mental enlightenment, social and spiritual uplift, 
and into noble character the investment of gold has 
paid. That under the blessing of God earthly treasure 
has been used to bring such enrichment to nations and 
peoples no one can reasonably question. In this con- 
nection let us take a view of India as it was a century 
ago. 

Doctor Claudius Buchanan in 1813 quoted in proof 
of the correctness of what he reported himself to have 
seen the words of Doctor Carey regarding the destructive 
influence of idolatry: "Idolatry destroys more than the 

311 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

sword, yet in a way which is scarcely perceived. The 
number who die in their long pilgrimages, either through 
want or fatigue, or from dysenteries and fevers caught 
by lying out, and want of accommodation, is incredible. 
I only mention one idol, the famous Juggernaut in 
Orissa, to which twelve or thirteen pilgrimages are made 
every year. It is calculated that the number who go 
thither is, on some occasions, 600,000 persons, and 
scarcely ever less than 100,000. I suppose, at the lowest 
calculation, that in the year 1,200,000 persons attend. 
Now if only one in ten died, the mortality caused by 
this one idol would be 120,000 in a year; but some are 
of opinion that not many more than one in ten survive 
and return home again. Besides these, I calculate that 
10,000 women annually burned with the bodies of their 
deceased husbands, and the multitudes destroyed in 
other methods, would swell the catalogue to an extent 
almost exceeding credibility." 

Are such scenes witnessed to-day anywhere in the 
Indian Empire? Has it paid to create a spirit that pro- 
tects life, improves social conditions, exalts woman- 
hood, creates a new atmosphere, and gives new ideals of 
life and duty? As a comparatively recent tsetimony, 
note the following: "The Rev. Doctor Chamberlain 
reports a Hindu village priest as having said to him, 
'Sir, what is it that makes your Veda have such an 
influence over the lives of those who embrace it?" and 
then, regarding the people of his own village who had 
become Christians less than a year before, he said, 
'Formerly they were lazy, and sometimes drank, lied, 
and cheated, as those around them do; but see what 
a change it has made in them — now they are sober, 
industrious, well-behaved, and thrifty. Why, there is 
not such a village in all this region.'" 

312 



WILL THE WORLD MOVEMENT PAY? 

Such a village — and there are many hundreds of 
them now in India and in many other non-Christian 
lands — is an oasis indeed in the midst of the desolate 
wastes of heathenism. Does it pay, is it worth while, 
to create such conditions? What must be the answer 
of the Christ who could not look on the hungry people 
without having compassion on them? Can we imagine 
that we hear Him saying it will not pay to spend our 
gold and silver, our time and talents on such a work of 
blessing? If the whole Church of Jesus Christ could but 
see through His eyes of sympathy and be prompted by 
His love, no mention would be made of the value of gold 
or silver or precious stones in comparison with the worth 
of the results secured by the devotion of these to the 
work of His Kingdom. 

Who that has seen the faces of heathen people 
brighten as the truth of the gospel has been grasped and 
Jesus has been seen; who that has beheld transforma- 
tions in character and life wrought out under the power 
of Christ; who that has heard the testimonies of people 
set free from the blight and enslavement of a non-Chris- 
tian faith; who that has had this priceless privilege 
doubts for a moment what the answer of such people 
would be if they were asked the question we are asking 
in this chapter? 

There is another viewpoint from which this question 
must be answered — that of the Church itself. Does it 
pay the Church in its own life to engage in this work? 

Whether the Church of Jesus Christ shall have a 
vigorous life that will make possible an active campaign 
for the world's redemption or live at a poor, dying rate 
depends on principles that must not be ignored. To 
live the Church must have communion with her Lord. 
Without unity of life, thought, desire, purpose there 

318 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

can be no real spirit of communion. Where there is 
such unity and the resultant communion of the Church 
through its individual members with God there will be — 
there must be — obedience. Disobedience is a sure cause 
of breaking the spirit of unity and communion, and 
wherever it is seen it may safely be regarded as an index 
of spiritual life or at least of feebleness in that life. 
Obedience to God is fundamentally essential to the real 
life of the soul. "To obey is," therefore, "better than 
sacrifice." There must be obedience to commands en- 
joining service as well as to those enforcing moral laws 
and religious observances. "All these I have observed 
from my youth," is a praiseworthy declaration, though 
it related to religious and moral duties only; but it 
must always fall short of the divine approval. A com- 
mand to serve always supplements those relating to 
personal character and life. 

Does the Church to-day merit approval if judged in 
respect to its obedience to the commands of Christ re- 
lating to service? When one notes the great work the 
Church of Christ is attempting and her really great 
accomplishments in the field of service criticism may 
seem hard; but facts must be recognized and actual 
conditions must not be ignored. The question must be 
asked plainly and pressed most earnestly, "Is the Church 
obeying the commands of Christ?" To be more specific, 
"Is the Church bringing all the tithes into the store- 
house?" and a second question, "Is the Church really 
obeying the last command of Jesus Christ — 'Go ye 
and disciple all nations?'" We have long believed 
obedience along these lines to be essential to the life of 
the Church. 

It is a well-recognized fact to-day — a fact that is 
314 



WILL THE WORLD MOVEMENT PAY? 

dwelt upon in every great religious assembly and in the 
Church press — that the Church is not measuring up to 
her duty, and that the returns for the amount invested 
and the labor bestowed are deplorably meager. The 
Church has been called again and again to face the 
facts. Revival services have been held, and many 
things have seemed to indicate the dawn of a better 
day, but the hope inspired has not been so largely 
realized as could be desired. Is there any solution of the 
problem to be suggested that will appear reasonable 
and that can be backed by a "Thus saith the Lord?" 
We believe there is and that the great world movement 
is so bound up with the problem that the life of the 
Church and the work of evangelizing the nations are so 
mutually related that if the first be strong and active 
the second must have a vigorous fife. 

We have just called attention to the fact that the 
Church is recognized as coming short of her high mis- 
sion. There must, however, be a remedy, for of the 
Church's final triumph we are assured. We should not, 
however, be content to leave to coming ages problems 
the solution of which will mean new life to the Church 
and added blessings to the world. The suggestion here 
made would be advanced with great hesitation if we did 
not have a deep conviction that it is based on great and 
essential principles that underlie our very life, and, 
further, that it is Scriptural. The underlying principle 
we emphasize is that obedience to God is the secret of 
spiritual life in the individual, and therefore in the 
Church. Whatever service, therefore, waits upon the 
Church and depends upon its life will languish if obedi- 
ence be wanting. 

We wish now to apply the principle to the present 
315 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

problem. The great Church of Jesus Christ is to a 
large extent failing to bring all the tithes into the store- 
house and is allowing the most promising opportunities 
to evangelize heathen peoples to pass unrecognized, or 
at least unused. If spiritual life depends on obedience, 
and the Church disobeys these great commands of God, 
how can there be life that can win victories over sin at 
home or conquer for Christ the nations that sit in dark- 
ness? What use is there in praying for spiritual bless- 
ings, in holding special services for the reviving of the 
life of the Church while God's commands are not hon- 
ored and He is being robbed? The little flame kindled 
in many a revival has often flickered and died away 
almost before the doxology of praise that closed the 
meeting has ceased simply because those who are set 
to instruct and train the new life fail to recognize God's 
claims and His broad plan, and thus failing lead the 
young converts into a life of narrow vision and selfish- 
ness, which means weakness in life and feebleness in 
effort. 

Will it pay to get a broad vision of God's world 
program and obey Him wholly? To ask this question 
is to ask whether it will pay to open up the channels 
between God and the Church so that His life can flow 
unhindered. From the standpoint of the life of the 
Church there can be no better investment than to put 
service and money into the great work of world evangel- 
ization until God's commands shall have been obeyed 
and His full claims met. There will be no lack in the 
spiritual life of the Church or failure in the world-wide 
campaign of evangelization if the Church will only ac- 
cept and intelligently and conscientiously apply the 
principle adopted by David Livingstone, "I will place 

316 



WILL THE WORLD MOVEMENT PAY? 

no value on anything I have or may possess except in 
relation to the Kingdom of God." 

"O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling, 
To tell to all the world that God is Light; 
That He who made all nations is not willing 
That one should perish, lost in shades of night. 

"He comes again. O Zion, ere thou meet Him, 
Make known to every heart His saving grace; 
Let none whom He hath ransomed fail to greet Him, 
Through thy neglect, unfit to see His face." 



317 



CHAPTER IV. 

WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 



The Present Outlook is Made Bright by the Promises of God, Abundant 
Success, and Countless Macedonian calls: 

"Ask of Me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." — Jehovah. 

"From all the dark places 
Of earth's heathen races, 
O see how the thick shadows fly! 
The voice of salvation 
Awakes every nation, 
*Come over and help us,' they cry." 

—Mary B. C. Slade. 



"Far and wide, though All-unknowing, 
Pants for Thee each human breast; 
Human tears for Thee are flowing, 
Human hearts in Thee would rest." 

"The world sits at the feet of Christ, 
Unknowing, blind, and unconsoled; 
It shall yet touch His garment's fold 
And feel the heavenly Alchemist 
Transmute its very dust to gold." 

"It is possible to evangelize the world in this generation if the 
Church will but do her duty. The trouble is not with the heathen. A 
dead Church will prevent it, if it is prevented. Why should it not be 
accomplished? God will have all men to be saved and come unto the 
knowledge of the truth. The resources of the Church are boundless. 
Let the will of the Churches be brought into line with the will of God, 
and nothing will be found to be impossible. May God grant it!" — Doctor 
Griffith John, of China. 

" Christ for India and India for Christ — let that be our enthusiastic 
shout; backed up by enthusiastic deeds, and by God's blessing, we will 
bring revolted India into Christ's Kingdom within the lives of those 
now born." — Doctor Jacob Chamberlain, in 1892. 



CHAPTER IV. 

What Is the Present Outlook? 

This is a natural and proper question. With the invest- 
ment already made and the conditions that now pre- 
vail before us, we ought to consider the future. There 
is a viewpoint from which the outlook has always been 
bright — that of the promises of God. Thus Adoniram 
Judson, before he had gathered the first fruits in Burma, 
and while lying in prison unable to do more than think 
and pray, when asked by a fellow-prisoner in a taunting 
way what the prospect of Burma being Christianized 
was, could reply, "As bright as the promises of God." 
Those promises have cheered the laborers in many a 
field through years of apparent failure so that their 
hearts have not despaired. They have, by faith in those 
promises, seen the triumph from afar and have labored 
in faith and hope, and "endured as seeing Him who is 
invisible," until they have rejoiced not alone in things 
hoped for, but also in victories already won. 

There has never been a time when the Church had 
so much of actual accomplishment in which to rejoice 
and on which to build her hopes for the future as the 
present. At the same time we firmly believe that there 
has never been a time when there was more urgent need 
to keep the divine promises in view and to build hope for 
the future on them. Cheering as past victories have 
been, they can give no sure promise of triumph in the 
coming days. 

But the person who asks, "What is the present out- 
21 321 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

look?" is looking to the foreign mission fields of the 
Church. He wants to know whether victories won and 
conditions now prevailing warrant the expectation of 
continued advance and final triumph. The question is 
natural and fully legitimate, and the preceding pages 
have been written to show what the outlook is in so far 
as that outlook is determined by what has been done 
and by present conditions. Space forbids any large 
repetition of facts already stated. Let it be noted, 
however, that the touch of Christianity upon the 
nations has been so strong, sympathetic, and beneficent 
that it has been practically enacting among them such 
wonders as its great Head worked in the days of His 
flesh, and to-day "the fields are white unto the harvest" 
in almost all the lands where work has been carried on 
for any considerable time. 

This fact holds not only where crude faiths such as 
Animism and Fetishism hold sway, but also where 
Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Shinto pre- 
vail — systems more comprehensive, complex, and philo- 
sophic. 

The outlook may be considered from several view- 
points : 

(1.) That of the fact that Christianity stands for 
progress, advance, development, and that the nations 
have become possessed in some way by that spirit. 
Without stopping here to emphasize what we believe 
to be the fact — that this spirit has been begotten by 
Christianity- — we do lay stress on the evident fact that 
the conviction has become widespread and strong, and 
is constantly increasing and deepening; that Christianity 
alone has ideals and the spirit and power that can 
elevate nations and peoples. In proof of this we point to 
Japan and China to-day as nations that look not to 

322 



WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

nations molded by non-Christian faiths and resting on 
foundation stones laid by such faiths for their example, 
inspiration, and guidance, but to lands far distant, the 
greatness and prosperity of which have attracted atten- 
tion and provoked thought even to the Far East. They 
are laying new foundations for their governments and 
adopting new principles for their social life, and Chris- 
tian lands are expected to supply their recognized need. 
India has, too, problems of religious and social regenera- 
tion to work out, and realizes that the old order must 
give place to a new. In the remodeling of the old system 
which the Hindu attempts rather than a rebuilding of 
the entire structure of social and religious life, reference 
is had to the Christian Church, its structure, and the 
methods of its propaganda. What do such facts sug- 
gest? Surely this much at least, that Christianity has 
attracted the attention of non-Christian people. But 
we firmly believe that there has been generated in the 
hearts of these peoples a deep conviction — not always 
admitted, but really recognized — that the secret of the 
greatness and commanding power and influence of 
Western nations is to be found in the fact of the Chris- 
tian faith of their peoples. Does not this suggest that 
the time has come when the very conditions in those 
lands encourage the expectation of large results? It 
may be night yet, but the night has so far passed that 
watchmen from a thousand vantage points in those 
lands shout back to the traveler who asks, "What of 
the night?" "The morning of a new day cometh." 

(2.) Much, we believe, should be made of the point 
just mentioned. The breaking down of a non-Chris- 
tian faith may, however, mean much or little. Emphasis 
has been placed on the fact that the nations that are 
rebuilding their governments or their social systems are 

323 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

looking to Christian lands for the model. It is possible 
that they may accept the perfected results of Christian 
civilizations without realizing that similar systems can 
be builded on no other foundation than Christ. Athe- 
istic or agnostic ideas may creep in and undermine until 
the last state of the people may be worse than the first. 
In its direct practical touch Christianity may lead a 
people to the point where faith in their ancestral re- 
ligion has been undermined and stop short of ushering 
them into the real land of promise and blessing. To 
some extent the work thus far accomplished in many 
heathen lands has been a work of preparation only for 
the coming in power of the Son of man. While thou- 
sands — yes, even a few millions — have been led into 
the broad life of faith in Christ and to-day rejoice in 
His salvation, far more have reached only the half-way 
house — the acknowledgment of the insufficiency of their 
old faith. But note that their faces are Christward. 
So long as they stand thus the outlook is, so far as they 
are concerned, hopeful. 

There are, then, these general results that encourage 
us: The recognition of the power of Christianity and a 
very large admission of the great results it has wrought 
out so that it is held in high esteem by these peoples, 
and also the fact that many have reached the point of 
practically admitting its claims. 

(3.) The native agency raised up is, both in quality 
and in spirit, such as to give encouragement. A leaven 
of seven million who bear Christ's name among the 
people of non-Christian lands is ground for great en- 
couragement. The further fact that one hundred and 
five thousand of them are engaged wholly in making 
Christ known to their people, while many others give not 
a little help in the work, is suggestive of larger fruitage, 

324 



WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

an expectation that is fostered also by the fact that the 
number of accessions from heathenism is becoming more 
numerous year by year, while the number of those who 
are inquiring the way of salvation through Christ still 
further reinforces the hope. A careful investigation of 
this agency will show that not a few have caught the 
spirit of conquest and have gained the inspiriting vision 
of the seer who beholds coming events not yet dreamed 
of by others. Thousands of spots in heathen lands, 
where most see only village squalor, confusion, and 
filth, have become mountain tops of experience and 
outlook to men and women who have been rescued from 
heathen faiths that give no vision of One who can save 
and of humanity redeemed by almighty power and love. 
Like most missionaries, probably, the writer has looked 
into faces bearing the stamp of hopelessness born of a 
faith that presents no object of hope and seen hope's 
transformation of expression taking place. Ah! there 
are the missionary's mountain tops of glory where toil 
and weariness, seeming defeat and almost discourage- 
ment are forgotten in the vision of the oncoming 
millions ! 

(4.) Just a few figures here may be suggestive and 
encouraging. The Methodist Episcopal Church Mis- 
sionary Society began work in Oudh and Rohilkand in 
1856. At the end of the first quarter-century the Chris- 
tian community numbered 3,474, and the last year of 
the period the baptisms numbered 814. During this 
period the work had spread to other parts of India and 
been organized in practically all the great centers under 
the name of South India Conference; and from this 
Conference there were reported a Christian community 
of 1,979 and baptisms for the year of 185. Thus the 
net returns for the first quarter-century gave a Chris- 

325 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

tian community for all India of 5,453, and the closing 
year had witnessed the baptism of 999. But consider the 
next twenty-five years' achievement as indicated by 
numerical returns: Christian community in 1907, 209,- 
693. This meant that for the second quarter-century 
the increase had averaged 8,170 a year, or 2,717 more 
each year than the whole ingathering of the first quarter- 
century. Go a step farther and notice the results of the 
next four years. The Christian community in 1911 
numbered 261,885, an increase of 52,192, or an average 
of 13,048 a year — more than two and one-third times as 
many each year as the entire ingathering in the first 
twenty-five years. Let these figures speak of the out- 
look in India. 

Now, narrowing the field, we look at Southern India 
only, drawing the line about one hundred miles south of 
Poona, and considering the same mission. In 1882 the 
Christian community was 485 and the baptisms reported, 
90. In 1907 the returns were 6,095, or an increase of 
224 a year. But note the gain in the next five years. 
In 1912 the reports showed a Christian community of 
28,593, or an annual advance for the five years of 4,499 
a year, or for each year over seventy-three per cent as 
many as the net returns for the effort of the period of 
more than thirty-five years preceding. Think of these 
figures and let them give answer as to the present out- 
look. 

Look also for a moment at the Church Missionary 
Society's returns for the item of "Christian adherents." 
The report for the South India Mission of this society 
by decades stands: 1891, 66,621; 1901, 74,577; 1911, 
102,169. For this mission the returns for all mission 
fields shows a doubling and more of Christian adherents 
in two decades, the figures standing, 1891, 200,665; 

326 



WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

1901,298,364; 1911,404,451. Do not such figures mean 
encouragement as one looks to the future? 

A study of the American Baptist, the English Wes- 
leyan, the American and Irish Presbyterian, the Ameri- 
can Board, the various Lutheran, and other missions at 
work in India — these all, if we could stop to study them, 
would be found to add to the rays of light that brighten 
the present prospect. A survey of other lands would 
mean the same thing. Does it mean nothing that within 
a radius of twenty-five miles from where these lines are 
penned there are more Christian people than the mis- 
sion represented had in all India after a quarter-century 
of work? And many missionaries of each of the larger 
boards working in India could say the same. 

(5.) But such a study does not and can not suggest 
the true character of the present outlook, which must 
not be based alone on numbers gathered out of heathen- 
ism or any tabulated reports, no matter what the sub- 
ject of tabulation may be. In previous chapters atten- 
tion has been called to social transformations, educa- 
tional agencies, literary activities, and humanitarian ef- 
forts. These all help to spell hope and encouragement 
for the future, and that in large and illumined letters. 

(6.) And yet one other point must be emphasized 
strongly as bearing on the present outlook — namely, 
the fact that back of those who have come there is a 
great host looking towards the light, asking for the 
truth. Whoever sees a missionary report now that 
does not lay emphasis on the fact that more people are 
ready to come than can, with the equipment and means 
at the command of the missionary, be received? The 
Macedonian call has been given perhaps five hundred 
tongues, linguistically speaking, while in numerical terms 
only thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of 

327 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

thousands can express it. Ten years ago Bishop J. M. 
Thoburn, in speaking at the Cleveland Convention 
for the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission alone, 
said: "In closing, I would say that I was asked here if 
it is true that we have one hundred thousand people in 
India asking for baptism. I have been assured that this 
number is not an exaggeration. I wrote for the figures, 
and my correspondent replied, 'We could report a much 
larger number than this; we could baptize the whole 
one hundred thousand within the next twelve months 
if we had the means to employ native teachers to go 
among them and teach them just the rudiments of 
Christian doctrine and Christian life/ My own im- 
pression is that we might multiply that number if we 
had the means, and there is hardly any limit to it at all." 

Ten years have passed, during which the tide has 
been constantly rising. How many are now waiting no 
man can tell, but that the waiting multitude has in- 
creased few who know conditions well will probably 
question. It would be interesting if we could only get 
estimates of the numbers who wait on the thresholds 
of all missions seeking admission to the Church of 
Christ through baptism. More interesting still would 
it be to note results that would surely come to pass if 
the Home Churches would provide the men and money 
needed to push the work in all fields. 

And so to the call from the homeland, "What is the 
present outlook?" we give back the answer, "Fields are 
white and harvests waiting." The waiting harvest is a 
host of people in each of many lands who are ready to 
acknowledge Jesus Christ in baptism. The Church has 
known no hour in her history hitherto when the prophecy, 
"A nation shall be born in a day," seemed so near a 
literal fulfillment. But as you read you may be saying: 

328 



WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

"This all sounds very familiar. We have been assured 
again and again that the doors were open, the peoples 
waiting, the fields white unto a glorious harvest. Why 
this repetition, why have the things prophesied not 
been fulfilled?" In answer, we emphasize your "Why?" 
The answer is not found in the unpreparedness of non- 
Christian peoples. Let the words of the Lord Jesus be 
used in answer, "The laborers are few." 

We have tried to state what the outlook is in the 
non-Christian lands, but firmly believe that the real out- 
look can not be fully gauged from the conditions on the 
foreign field. The missionary has the same question to 
ask that has come across the seas; and his eye is on the 
Home Church as he asks, "What is the present out- 
look?" 

Past history shows how thorns have sprung up where 
the seeds of truth had been sown but were not cultivated. 
The land exalted in privilege as no other — Palestine, 
the home of Christ in the flesh — has lain for centuries 
under the blight of an alien and hostile faith. North 
Africa, one of the hardest fields of earth to-day for con- 
quest by the Christian faith, had its broad oases where 
early Christianity had entered. Why was the outlook 
not realized? W T hy in these lands and others did Chris- 
tian hope suffer eclipse? The battle was not pushed and 
Christ was dethroned. Only one hemisphere of the out- 
look is found mirrored in the foreign field. The other 
half must be found in the Christian lands of the West. 

And what is the outlook, viewed from the standpoint 
of the Home Church? Those at the front of the far and 
wide-flung battle-line of the Church's great army wait 
an answer to their appeal for reinforcements and equip- 
ment adequate to the great task. The outlook in foreign 
fields is bright, but the realization of that outlook de- 

329 



INVESTMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT. 

pends on the answer given by the Home Church. What 
is the outlook in the United States, in Canada, in Great 
Britain, in Germany, in Scandinavia? Is there a good 
outlook for a whole-hearted, Church-wide interest, and 
that the Church will give itself to planning and working 
in a thoroughly business-like way to assure the actual 
realization of the results promised by the present out- 
look? Is there good promise of the awaking from the 
sleep of indifference of the no inconsiderable part of the 
Church membership? What is the prospect that men 
and women will call to remembrance the solemn promises 
made to God and His Church when they assumed the 
sacred responsibilities and entered into the hallowed 
fellowship of the Church? What is the outlook for the 
pastors in all Protestant communions awaking to their 
responsibility as leaders of detachments of the Lord's 
army and rallying their people to the great work? Yea, 
what is the prospect that the millions who profess love 
to Jesus Christ will join Him in His great work of inter- 
cession and cease not until He is exalted in these non- 
Christian lands where Satan now sits enthroned? An- 
swer to our questions that the promise along all these 
lines is as bright as are the promises of speedy triumph 
in foreign lands and we will assure you that the day of 
the speedy triumph of the Son of man has come. Broth- 
ers and sisters in the Churches of the homelands, we 
pass back to you your question as to the outlook to-day 
in foreign fields with our answer of cheer, but remember 
we wait your answer to our question, "What is the out- 
look in the Home Church?" 

We are pleased to know that the battle that is on with 
the forces of darkness, whose influence and power have 
been crystallized in non-Christian faiths and un-Christian 
customs and social systems, is the Lord's, and not man's. 

330 



WHAT IS THE PRESENT OUTLOOK? 

He is at the head of the great army. His final triumph is 
sure. These words are written where signs of the com- 
ing triumph are numerous and clear. Surely "the morn- 
ing breaketh," and multitudes have their faces towards 
the dawn. They have learned that their old systems 
have for them only a stone, while they hunger for bread. 
There must be messengers to point them to the Lamb 
of God. There must be disciples to break to them the 
Bread of life. There must be teachers to instruct them 
more perfectly in the truth of Jesus. Again we say, 
"The outlook is as bright as waiting thousands can 
make it." In India, in China, Japan, Korea, Africa, 
the Philippine Islands, the Malay Archipelago, and in 
the isles of the sea 

"The restless millions wait 
The light whose dawning 
Maketh all things new: 
Christ also waits, 
But men are slow and late. 
Have we done what we could? 
Havel? Have you?" 



381 



APPENDIX. 



Appendix L 



PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORT FROM 

THE REFORMATION TO WILLIAM 

CAREY, 1546-1792. 

During this period of two and a half centuries wide- 
spread and thoroughly organized effort was not known, 
but something was attempted, though great things were 
not accomplished. 

Attention is here called to the fact that a missionary- 
spirit was in the process of development, and a few in- 
stances of its manifestation are cited in proof. Among 
the more prominent of these are the following: 

The French Presbyterians (Huguenots) began mission work in 
Brazil in 1555, and in Florida in 1562. 

The Swedish Lutherans made various missionary attempts between 
1619 and 1738, most prominent of which was that to the American 
Indians in 1640. 

The Anglican Church and the Dutch Presbyterians began mission 
work near the end of the sixteenth century. Both labored among the 
American Indians, the former from 1607 and the latter from 1642. 

The English Congregationalists attempted to evangelize the Ameri- 
can Indians in 1620. 

The Lutherans began work in Abyssinia in 1634, and the Friends in 
Egypt in 1661. 

The Moravians began founding missions in foreign lands in 1732. 



335 



Appendix II. 

The following is a list of the more important foreign 
mission boards, with the dates of their organization: 

Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in New England 1647 

Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge — England 1701 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the North Ameri- 
can Indians — Scotland 1715 

Danish Mission — Denmark 1715 

Moravian Brethren 1732 

Methodist Missionary Society — England 1788 

Baptist Missionary Society — England 1792 

London Missionary Society — England 1795 

Scotch Missionary Society — Scotland 1796 

Church Missionary Society — England 1800 

London Jews' Society — England 1809 

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions — United 

States of America 1810 

Baptist Board of Foreign Missions — United States of America 1814 

Negro Conversion Society — England 1817 

Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society — United States of America 1819 
Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society — United States of America 1820 

Danish Missionary Society — Denmark 1821 

Basle Missionary Society — Germany -. 1822 

Methodist New Connection Missionary Society 1824 

Rhenish Missionary Society — Germany 1824 

Society for Promoting Evangelical Missions to the Heathen 1824 

Scottish State Church Missionary Society 1824 

Swedish Missionary Society — Sweden 1835 

Gossner Missionary Society — Germany 1836 

Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society 1836 

Welsh Calvinistic Missionary Society 1840 

Irish Presbyterian Missionary Society 1840 

Lutheran General Synod Missionary Society 1841 

Norwegian Missionary Society 1842 

336 



APPENDIX. 

Primitive Methodist Missionary Society — England 1843 

Free Church of Scotland Missionary Society 1843 

American Missionary Association 1846 

Southern Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society 1846 

The United Methodist Free Churches' Missionary Society 1857 

United Presbyterian Board Missionary Society 1859 

Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, South 1861 

China Inland Mission 1865 

German Evangelical Synod Missionary Society 1867 

Friends' Foreign Missionary Society 1867 

Regions Beyond Missionary Union 1872 

Lutheran General Council Missionary Society 1874 

Disciples of Christ Missionary Society 1879 

Alliance Mission Missionary Society 1887 



337 



Appendix III. 



Tabulated statement showing Protestant mission fields ; 
the distribution of mission boards; the date when work 
was begun in each; and the number of (1) foreign mis- 
sionaries, (2) native helpers, and (3) Christians in each. 
This statement was compiled from "The World 
Atlas of Foreign Missions." 

Work No. of Mission- Native 

Name of Field begun Boards aries Helpers Christians 

Lesser Antilles 1665 14 186 977 386,225 

India 1706 120 4,635 35,354 1,471,727 

South Africa 1736 52 1,589 8,680 1,145,326 

Dutch Guiana 1738 3 102 430 31,959 

Jamaica 1754 18 257 1,852 461,309 

Bahama Islands 1800 7 37 266 41,476 

Chinese Empire 1807 92 4,197 12,108 470,184 

Turkish Empire 1807 18 354 1,446 58,616 

Argentine Republic 1807 19 199 189 15,296 

South Central Africa 1810 22 403 3,093 92,583 

Cen. America and Panama. . . 1811 16 131 304 33,687 

Western Africa 1811 29 518 2,538 248,702 

Peru 1812 5 45 82. 1,306 

Northeast Africa 1812 16 296 818 37,726 

British Malaysia 1813 10 114 342 16,674 

Dutch East Indies 1814 13 490 3,136 515,660 

Ceylon 1814 21 263 2,789 50,196 

America, inc. Alaska (Indians 

and Eskimos) 1814 28 492 470 68,143 

Persia 1815 8 119 305 10,446 

Brazil 1817 19 244 364 115,593 

Haiti and San Domingo 1817 9 17 139 10,671 

Madagascar and Mauritius... 1820 9 269 6,138 286,702 

Polynesia 1821 5 105 4,460 146,500 

338 



APPENDIX. 

Work No. of Mission- Native 
Name of Field begun Boards aries Helpers Christians 
Canada and Labrador (In- 
dians and Eskimos) 1822 11 338 281 44,218 

Hawaiian Islands 1823 3 65 152 22,000 

Northwest Africa 1824 12 155 28 427 

Siam and French Indo-China. 1833 6 96 177 17,184 

Southwest Africa 1842 20 664 2,217 103,201 

Uruguay 1841 6 27 27 2,441 

Melanesia 1841 16 280 3,070 111,415 

East Africa 1844 20 648 2,962 118,107 

Syria and Palestine 1851 27 397 758 18,374 

Micronesia 1852 3 32 130 17,760 

America (Asiatic Immigrants) 1852 12 100 104 4,252 

Colombia 1856 2 10 6 500 

Bulgaria 1857 3 22 70 5,171 

Japan 1859 58 1,029 2,138 97,117 

Australia 1860 9 48 39 1,480 

Mexico 1870 19 294 529 92,156 

New Zealand 1871 4 21 225 25,888 

Chile 1873 6 97 134 20,264 

British Guiana 1875 14 81 527 82,416 

Bolivia 1877 6 16 3 194 

Cuba 1882 16 142 137 36,850 

Canada (Asiatic Immigrants) 1883 6 17 15 424 

Korea 1886 18 307 1,931 178,686 

Paraguay 1888 3 22 18 379 

Venezuela 1890 6 19 10 303 

Ecuador 1895 4 19 5 121 

Porto Rico 1898 15 167 200 30,732 

Cape Verde and Madeira Is- 
lands 1898 3 11 11 174 

Philippine Islands 1899 10 167 880 75,955 



339 



Bibliography. 

(This bibliography contains only the works the author 
has consulted and has found practically useful in the 
preparation of this volume. It will serve, therefore, to 
indicate books of value along the lines of this study, and 
in a general way the sources of information, as well as 
to make grateful acknowledgment to the authors con- 
cerned. — The Author.) 

Anderson, Rufus, Foreign Missions. 
Atkinson, Edward, The Cost of War. 

Barnes, L. C, Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey. 
Barton. Dr. James L., The Missionary and His Critics. 
Black, I. S., The Future of War. 

Blackburn, Dr. W. M., History of the Christian Church. 
Blaikie, Prof. W. G., The Life of David Livingstone. 
Brace, C. L., Gesta Christi. 
Brettant, The Great Indian Religions. 
Brown, Dr. Arthur J., The Foreign Missionary. 

Cary, Otis, A History of Christianity in Japan. 

DeGroat, Prof. J. J. M., The Religions of the Chinese. 
Dennis, Dr. J. S., Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions. 

Christian Missions and Social Progress. 

Missions and Commerce. 

The New Horoscope of Missions. 
De Pressense, Dr. E., The Early Years of the Christian Church. 

The Martyrs and Apologists. 
Dorchester, Dr. Daniel, Problem of Religious Progress. 
Douglas, Robert K., Confucianism and Taoism. 
Dryer, History of the Christian Church. 

Fisher, Prof. J. P., Outlines of Universal History. 
Fowler, Bishop Charles H., Missionary Addresses, 
340 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 

Graham, J. A., Missionary Expansion Since the Reformation. 

Green, The Rule of the Turk. 

Griffis, Dr. William Elliot, The Religions of Japan. 

Gulick, The Growth of the Kingdom of God. 

Haines, Charles Reginald, M. A., Islam as a Missionary Religion. 
Harnack, Adolf, Mission and Expansion of Christianity. 
Harshman, Dr. Charles W., Christian Giving. 
Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 
Headland, Dr. Isaac C, Chinese Heroes. 
Henderson, Dr. Howard, Wealth and Workmen. 
Hulbert, Homer B., A. M., The Passing of Korea. 
Hurst, Bishop J. F., History of the Christian Church. 

Jones, Dr. John P., India's Problem. 

Kidder, Dr. D. P., Sketches of the Waldenses. 
Knox, Dr. George William, The Development of Religion in 

Japan. 

Legge, James, LL. D., Christianity and Confucianism Compared. 
Liggins, Rev. John, The Great Value and Success of Foreign Mis- 
sions. 

Maclear, History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages. 
Mackenzie, W. Douglas, M. A., Christianity and the Progress of 

Man. 
Mitchell, J. Murray, M. A., The Hindu Religion. 

The Zend Avesta and the Religion of 
the Parsees. 
Mott, Dr. John R., The Decisive Hour in Christian Missions. 

The Evangelization of the World in This Gen- 
eration. 
Mura, Rise and Decline of Islam. 

Parkman, Francis, The Jesuits in North America. 

Reynolds, Dr. Henry Robert, Buddhism. 
Richter, Jean Paul, History of Missions in India. 
Rogers, J. E. Thorold, The Economic Interpretation of History. 
Ruter, Martin, History of the Martyrs. 
341 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Schaff, Dr. Philip, History of the Christian Church. 
Sell, Canon E., The Faith of Islam. 
Slack, Sarah G., Story of Uganda. 

Smith, George, LL. D., Short History of Foreign Missions. 
Smiles, Samuel, The Huguenots. 
Sohn, Prof. Rudolph, History of Christianity. 
Speer, Dr. Robert E., Missions and Modern History. 
Stevenson, Prof. Richard T., Missionary Interpretation of His- 
tory. 
Stewart, Dawn in the Dark Continent. 

Taylor, S. Earl, The Price of Africa. 
Terry, Dr. Milton S., The Shinto Cult. 
Tylor, Dr. Edward B., Primitive Culture. 

Warneck, Dr. G., History of Protestant Missions. 
Modern Missions and Culture. 
Webster, General History of Commerce. 
Welch, R. E., M. A., The Challenge to Christian Missions. 
Wherry, Dr. E. M., Islam and Christianity in the Far East. 
Whitley, W. T., Missionary Achievement. 
Workman, Persecution in the Early Church. 

Yeats, John, The Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce. 
Young, Robert, Modern Missions — Their Trials and Triumphs. 

Zwemer, Dr. Samuel M., Islam — A Challenge to Faith. 
Life of Raymund Lull. 
" Unoccupied Fields. 

SOME GENERAL WORKS. 

American Year Book, The. 

Cram's Modern Atlas. 

Our Moslem Sisters, by Various Authors. 

Non-Christian Religions, by Various Authors. 

Tribune Almanac, The. 

Reports, United States Census. 

W 7 orld Atlas of Foreign Missions. 

World Almanac and Encyclopedia. 

Whittaker's Almanac. 

Year Books of Various Churches. 

342 



Index. 



Page 

Aborigines — Christianizing 63, 64 

Achievement 151-231 

The Church . 151-160 

Opening up World 161-166 

Commerce and Industries 167-181 

Literature 183-191 

Science 193-198 

Education 199-207 

Social and Humanitarian 209-220 

A Christian and Missionary Apolo- 
getic 221-229 

Afghanistan, Mohammedanism in ... . 72 
Africa, North, Conquest by Saracens. . 60 

Mohammedanism in 244 

Animism and Fetichism in 249-250 

Work in 83 

AgaAsiz, Professor, quoted 193 

Albigenses, The 104-105 

America — Central 64, 85 

South 84, 85 

United States of, Work in 87 

Anglo-Saxons, Evangelized 41 

Animism, Extent of Faith 72, 73 

Characteristics of 249, 250 

Antilles, The Lesser, Work in 86, 87 

Apologists — Greek 7 

Latin 29, 30 

Apologetic, Early Writings 29, 30, 223 

Christianity's Great 223 

Apostles, Service of 17-22 

Arabia, Home of Mohammedanism. 59, 60 
Asia, Birthplace of Religions ... 78, 79, 80 

Work Accomplished in 78, 79, 80 

Augustine quoted 16, 30, 33 

Australasia, Work in 87, 88 

Augustinians in Mexico 64 

Bahama Islands, Work in 86 

Baluchistan, Mohammedanism in . . 72, 73 

Barbarians, Vandals, Picts 28, 41 

Of Europe 47, 48, 49 

In Russia 55, 56 

Baptism of 58, 59 

Narrow Life of 170 

Christianity and 172 

Barrows, Doctor Henry, quoted 230 

Babcock, Maltbie D., quoted 261, 274 

Bartholomew's Day, Saint, Massacre 

of 108, 109, 110 

Bertha, Saxon Queen 42 

Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, quoted. . .231 

Bharnagree, Sir Numcherjee 167 

Boehler, Peter . 69 

Boniface, or Winfrid 50 

Brahmanism 238 

Brainerd, David 69 

Brigida 40 



Page 

British Isles, Work in 41, 42, 43 

Buckam, James, quoted 253 

Buchanan, Dr. Claudius, quoted. 311, 312 
Buddhism, Extent of; Rise of, 

72, 240, 241, 242 

Character of 241, 242, 243 

Aim of 251 

Brooks, Bishop Phillips, quoted 230 

Bokkhara, Mohammedanism in. . . .72, 73 
Burma, Mohammedanism in 72, 73 

California, Lower; Upper 65 

Calvin, John 71 

Canada, Work among Indians, Eski- 
mos, and Asiatics 87 

Cape Verde Islands, Work in 84 

Carey, William. 77, 89, 195, 196 

Caste, Antagonistic to Christianity, 

226, 241 

Chalmers, Rev. James 165, 166, 294 

Quoted 168 

Cheng, Sir Chentrung Liang, quoted. .168 

Charters, Original to Colonists 67 

Child Life, Destruction of 215 

Childhood. 217, 248 

Instruction needed 258, 295 

Heathen. . 286, 287 

China, Buddhism 'in 73 

Mohammedanism in 72 

Work in 59, 79, 80 

French and Indo, Work in 81 

Religions in 248 

Christianity, Apologetic, Its best . 221-229 

Appeal, Its 224 

Beginnings, Its 224 

British Isles, In 39-45 

Commerce and 169-171 

Conquests of 38 

Demands, Its 224, 225 

Development of 71, 72 

Defense, Its sure 227 

Divorce and 212, 213 

Education and 199-207 

France and Spain in 36, 37 

Germany in 47 

Industrial development and. . . .167-176 

Literature in 190 

Material greatness and 321, 322 

Ministry, Its 225 

Non-Christian faiths and 223-227 

Non-Christian lands in 154 

Nominal 72 

Official Religion 33 

Opposed by State 98 

Prevailing faith, Where 153 

Problem of, New 33, 34 

Progress of 35, 36 



INDEX. 



Page 
Christianity — 

Silent working of 212 

Social and humanitarian move- 
ments and 209-220 

Social work of 216, 217 

Woman and 217, 218 

World exploration in 163-166 

Church, The 212 

Advance of 36 

Allied with State 31, 32 

Anglo-Saxon 41 

Apologetic achievement of 223-229 

British. 40, 41 

Business-like methods needed 260 

Coming short 315 

Cost of building 122, 123 

Denmark, In 51, 52 

Distribution of forces 154 

Duty at Home 270, 271 

Early 131, 132 

Educational achievements of. . .199-207 

Equipment of 88 

Europe, Extension in. . .9, 10, 11, 33-37 

Frankish, Wanting 38 

Revitalized 47 

Gain in 32 

Great Extension of 30 

Great in character 159 

Growth of 22, 26, 27, 30 

How judged 155 

Literary achievements of 183-191 

Material resources of 156-158 

Native, in many lands 87, 88 

Numerical strength of 154, 155 

Opposed by Pagan Rome 30 

Outcome of world movement.. .151-153 

Present day of 153-155 

Extent of 153, 154 

Intercession and 144-147 

Investment of 132-135 

Responsibility of . . . 136, 137 

Problem, Its, world-wide 235 

Rome in 96, 97, 98 

Russia in 55, 56 

Scientific achievements of 193-198 

Social and humanitarian achieve- 
ments of 209-220 

Strategic centers of 154 

Strength of 21, 22, 25, 26 

Work of, Missionary 18, 19 

Worldliness and 33, 34 

Clotilda 37 

Clovis, Baptism of 37 

Colonization 57, 67 

Columba, Kentigern 40, 41 

Coluinbanus 47, 48 

Columbus, Christopher 62, 63 

Commerce :•■.••• 169-175 

Difficult among non-Christian 

people. . 171-173 

Development in Africa 171, 172 

Furthered by missions 169-171 

Impossible with barbarians 170 

Missions helpful to ..... 175 

Re-enforced by Christianity 173 

Some figures for 174 



Page 

Confucianism, Extent of 73 

Character of 247 

Constantine, Conversion of 35 

Controversy, Age of 31 

Questions of 33 

Service of 32 

Controversialists 33 

Conquests, temporal, spiritual, 

263, 269, 270, 281 

Cost of 264, 282, 283, 284 

World, Spirit of 294-299, 300 

Incidents of 301-305 

Cooke, Rose Terry, quoted 274 

Cowper, William, quoted 295 

Cox, Melville 294 

Coxe, A. Cleveland, quoted 152 

Cromwell, Oliver 74 

Cuba, Work in 86 

Cust, Dr., quoted 200 

Cyril 54, 55 

Cyprian 37 

Clement, of Rome, quoted 36 

Dennis, Dr. James, quoted, 

174, 175, 204, 205 

Discovery, Spanish 62, 63 

Discoverers (See Exploration) 

Divorce, Mohammedan laws govern- 
ing. 212, 213 

Dominicans in Mexico 64 

Dorchester, Dr. Daniel, quoted 184 

Dwight, Timothy, quoted 160 

Duff, Dr., quoted 203 

Education, Bible and 201, 202 

Christianity and 201, 202 

Development under Christian na- 
tions 202 

Female, Ban on 203, 204, 216, 217 

In India 204, 205 

Upper classes and 204 

Extent of 205, 206 

Outcome in Christian lands 207 

Present opportunity 207 

Protestant missions and 205, 206 

Statistics, general \ 206 

In Turkey 206 

Edwards, Jonathan 68, 69 

Edwin, King of Northumbria 43, 44 

Egypt, Conquest by Saracens 60 

Elliot, John 68 

Emperors, Roman 96, 97, 98, 212, 213 

England, Evangelistic effort in. .41, 42, 43 

Ethelbert, Saxon King . .42, 43 

Ethelburga, Queen of Northumbria . 43, 44 

Europe, Service in 50, 51 

Extent of Christianity in 72 

Social life in 213, 214, 215 

Eusebius, quoted 24 

Expenditure: In war, science, com- 
merce, exploration, invention, 
and Christian propaganda. 129-132 
Exploration — In North America.. 163, 164 

Africa and Pacific Isles 164-166 

Missionary effort and 62, 63 



344 



INDEX. 



Page 

Fathers, Pilgrim 67, 68 

Fetichism, Extent of 73, 249 

Character of 249 

Faiths, Non-Christian, 

72, 73, 223-226, 248-251 

Character of 238 

Contrasted with Christianity.. .223-227 

China, Of 248 

India, Of 238-241 

Field, World— How occupied 235-237 

Why largely unoccupied 237 

Unoccupied 237 

Questions concerning 255 

Foster, The Hon. John W., quoted.. . .210 
Fowler, Bishop Charles H., quoted.. . 16 

Francis, Benjamin, quoted 128 

Franciscans 59 

Francke, Aug. Herm 74, 75 

Fraser, Sir Andrew H. L., quoted 205 

Frederick, King IV of Denmark 74 

Freedom, Religious 55 

"Free Thought" in England 77 

Frere, Sir Bartle, quoted 196 

"Friends, The" among the Indians ... 69 
Froude, James Anthony, quoted.. 221, 222 
Frumentius 35 

Germany, Service in 47-50 

Gilder, Richard Watson, quoted.. 125, 126 

Gregory, The Great 41, 42 

Green, Doctor, quoted 120 

Greenland, Work in 87 

Gulick, J. T. and L. H 197 

Haines, Charles Reginald, quoted. 246, 247 

Haiti, Work in 86 

Hannington, Bishop 113, 165 

Harrison, Benjamin, quoted 261 

Hartzell, Bishop J. C 177 

Havergal, Frances R., quoted 127 

Hawaiian Islands, Work in 86 

Hebrides Islands 41 

Hemans, Mrs., quoted 107 

Henderson, Dr. Howard, quoted 266 

Hendrix, Bishop E. R., quoted 168 

Hernhut, Colony of 70 

Prayer at 144-149 

Hinduism, Character of 210, 239-240 

Education, Female, and 203, 216 

Industrial life and 175-176 

Purdah system of 218 

Caste system of 226, 241 

Social life of 226 

Strength of 241 

Hole, Canon, quoted 210 

Home, Christianity and 217, 218 

Huguenots, The 108-109 

Humanitarian (See Social) 209 

Hunt, John, quoted 148, 300-301 

Hunter, Sir William, quoted 200 

Iceland, Wonderful history of 57-58 

Idols, Twenty thousand, destroyed. . . 64 

Idolatry, Cost of 287 

Destruction by, , , 311-312 

345 



Page 

India, Early laborers In 21, 27 

Gospel in 58, 59, 71, 72, 77, 78 

Extent and results of work in 79 

Manhood of 79 

Womanhood of 78-79 

Religions of 238, 251 

Transformations wrought 210 

Indians, North American. .65, 67, 76, 164 

Christian 68 

Indies, Dutch East, Work in 81 

West 63, 70 

Industries . . 175-181 

Education in, needed 176 

In Africa, South Sea Islands, and 

India 176-179 

Results of effort 178-179 

Conditions in Africa and India con- 
trasted 179 

Centers of work 180 

Organized effort 180 

Incentive, The true 288-296 

Intercession, Investment in 139-147 

"Annual Concert of Prayer" for.. . .146 

Apostolic letters and 143 

Early Church in 142, 143 

Jesus and 142 

Greatest weapon 144 

Great movements and 144, 145 

Hernhut at 145 

Carey and 146 

Missions and 142, 146 

Missionary volunteers and 146 

Needed resources and 148 

"Prayer Concert," The 145 

Strength for trials and 143, 144 

Victory by 149 

Investment, Service in 15-91 

Life in 93-125 

Material resources in 126-137 

Intercession in 139-149 

Beyond computation 100 

Past, may be nullified 135 

Inquisition, The set up 110 

Iona, Island of 44 

Irenseus, quoted 37 

Jamaica, Work in 86 

Japan, Work in 80 

Religions of 72-73, 248-250 

Jesus, Service of — Nature of 17-19 

Field of 17 

Typical 17 

Missionary 18-19 

Unparalleled 17-18 

Social problems and 211-218 

Words of, quoted, 15, 16, 91, 93, 94, 

139, 161, 233, 253, 290, 308 

Jesuits in Canada 66, 113 

China, India, Japan, and Korea, in. . 59 

Spanish 64 

Persecuted in North America . 65-67, 113 

Jews, Allied with Pagans in persecu- 
tion 95, 96 

Work among 62 

Johnson, Samuel, quoted 152 



INDEX. 



Page 
Johnston, Sir Harry H., quoted, 

193, 197, 198 
Judson, Adoniram 114, 321 

Knobel, Philip, quoted 230 

Korea, Work in 81 

Religions of 72, 249-250 

Krapf , Ludwig 165 

Labrador, The, Work in 87 

Ladrone Islands, The 64-65 

Lawrence, Lord, quoted 222 

Leckey, William E. H., quoted 222 

Leibnitz, Baron Von 74 

Life, Investment in 93-125 

Liggins, Rev. John, quoted 168 

Literature, Apologetic 29, 30, 223 

Bible widely available 268 

Bible translation and distribution, 

185-187 

Creation of 189 

Cultivation of. 188-191 

Foreign lands in 28 

General 188, 197 

Hymnology 191 

Iceland in 57-58 

Christian lands of 190 

Periodical, in various lands, 

189, 197, 268 
Religious, circulation of, 

185, 187, 189-190 

Results 186-187 

Scientific 195-198 

Livingstone, David 165, 294 

Missionary, A 170 

Scientific work 195-198 

Spirit of 163, 165, 166 

Travels of 165 

Quoted, 127, 137, 162, 297, 300, 316, 317 

Lull, Raymund, quoted 60-61, 301 

Luther, Martin 71 

MacArthur, Alexander, quoted 230 

Mackay, Alexander 114, 165, 177, 294 

Mackensie, W. Douglas, quoted 194 

Madagascar, Work in . . 84 

Madeira Islands, Work in 84 

Mohammedanism, Invasion of 28 

Home of 61 

Extent of 72 

Christianity and 223-228, 245-248 

Faith of 244 

Aim of 251 

Present extent of 247 

Future life and 246 

Malaysia, British, Work in 81 

Marriage, Roman laws regarding 212 

Martel, Charles 50-18 

Repulsed Saracens 60 

Martyn, Henry 69 

Martyr, Justin, quoted 25 

Martyrs— In Africa 102-103 

Denmark 51, 52, 103 

England, Gaul, Rome, and Upper 

Phrygia 102-105 

Madagascar, South Sea Islands. 114-116 



Page 

Martyrs- 
China 116-119 

Crete, Turkey 119-120 

Among Albigenses 104-105 

Waldenses 105-107 

Huguenots 108-113 

Nestorians, Maronites, Syrians, Ar- 
menians 120 

Mason, Hugh, quoted 167 

McAffee, Cleland, quoted 16 

Melanchthon 71 

Melanesia, Work in 88 

Methodius 54 

Mexico, Work in 85-86 

Micronesia, Work in 88 

Ministry, Native 87-88 

Missionary — Effort in West 62-63 

Effort and intercession 146-148 

Movement, Protestant 73-74 

Leaders, Protestant 74-75 

Force, Extent of 88-89, 268-271 

Apologetic 221-229 

Giving 270-271, 282-287 

Societies, Number of 159 

Missionaries — French, English, Span- 
ish in North America 65-69 

Moravian 70-75 

Scientists as 193-198 

Present number of 268 

Buddhist, Mohammedan 60-61 

Mongols 61-62 

Milton, John, quoted 107 

Moravians, Missionary society of 70 

First missionaries of 70 

Missionary spirit of 74 

Missionary giving 283-285 

Mott, Dr. John R., quoted 142, 265 

Nantes, Edict of 112-113 

Newton, John, quoted 140 

Nightingale, Florence, quoted 162 

Ninian, Mission to Scotland 40 

North, The Far 57-58 

Opposition— By Jews 22-23 

Pagans 22-23 

State 31 

Growth of Church under v . . .22-23 

Opportunity, The present 124-125 

Orkney Islands, The 41 

Ostrogoths 35 

Outlook, The present 319-331 

Accomplishment 321 

The foreign field 321-323 

General influence 322-324 

Native agency 324-325 

Some figures 325-327 

The waiting peoples 328-329 

The Home Church 329-330 

Danger in delay 329 

In various lands 329 

Paganism, Opposition of 22-25 

Grseco-Roman, conquered 30 

Renounced by Clovis 37 

Inroads on Church , 38 



346 



INDEX. 



Page 

Paganism — 

In Roman Empire 45, 95-97 

Last stronghold in Europe 56 

Numerical increase of 72 

Paladius 39 

Palestine, Work in 83 

Panama, Work in 85 

Pantsenus . 27 

Pastor, The, Instruction of children, 

259-260 

Paton, John G 294 

Patrick, Saint 36, 39 

Patterson, Bishop 114 

Paul. Apostle, Service of.. . .19, 20, 21, 23 

Quoted 94, 199, 209, 289, 297 

Paulinus 44 

Persecution, Peculiar phases of. . . 103-104 

Incidents of 117-123 

Under Shapur 102 

Periods of 96-99 

Three centuries of 97-99 

Extent of 96 

Methods employed 99-100, 117-119 

Of apostles 19-20 

Jesues, to death 95-96 

In Rome; Europe 31-33, 00 

Canada; France 66 

Africa; Uganda, Burma 108-110 

South Sea Islands, New Guinea, 
North America, Madagascar, 

other fields 113-115 

Gaul, Lyons, Africa 99 

Rome, Persia 100-102 

Upper Phrygia, England, Denmark, 103 

China; Armenia 116-119, 120-122 

Crete, Turkey 120 

Bv Saracens, Vandals 102-103 

Persia, Work in 82-83 

Peter, Apostle, quoted 94 

Philippine Islands, Work in ... . 64-65, 81 

Photius 54 

Picts 41 

Pietism, Influence on missions 71-72 

Polynesia, Work in 87 

Porto Rico, Work in 86 

Pothinus 37 

Prime, Dr. E. D. G., quoted 231 

Problem, The, Extent and character of, 

233, 252 

Field occupation of 235-238 

Numerical, by lands 251-252 

By faiths 251 

Solution with Church 253-260 

What is meant 255 

Plan needed 255-256 

Workers needed 255 

Enlistment of childhood 257-260 

Pastor, The, and . 259 

Preparation and equipment for. 261-272 
Ideas from military life .263-264, 269 

Geographical 264 

Rule of Christian governments. . .265 

Material resources 265-268 

Bible available 268 

Literature available 268 

Limited use of resources 268-269 



Page 
Problem- 
Equipment ample 271 

Cost of solution 273-288 

Great movements cost 275 

Beyond estimate 275 

Amounts given 276-277 

Force employed 276 

Increase of workers 278 

War taxation 275 

Comparisons 275-276 

Cost of conquest 279-280 

Cost of Christian conquest.. .281-285 

Moravian Church 284-285 

Scriptural principles 286-287 

Protestantism, To the fore 70 

Eighteenth century 73 

Fields of labor 76 

Work accomplished 76 

Assets of 76 

Aroused 78 

In various lands 76-88 

Base for future work 88 

Present strength 87-88, 157, 264 

Present equipment 158-159 

Wealth of 157-158 

Statistics of for United States of 

America 157 

Centers of work 158 

Force of workers 158 

Prosperity, Material 172 

Races — 

Aborigines, 64-65; Alemani, 37; 

Alani, 36; Anglo-Saxon 41 

Franks 37 

Goths 35, 101 

Jews 62 

Lombards 101 

Mongols 61, 62 

Ostrogoths 35 

Saracens, 60-61; Slavs, 53-55; - 
South Sea, 101; Special, 59; 

Suevians 48 

Teutons 101 

Vandals, 101-103; Visigoths 35 

Special service among 59-60 

Rationalism in Germany 76 

Reformation, Lutheran, Missionary 

Influence of 71 

Spirit of 71 

Resources, Material 127-137 

Investment in 127-137 

Intercession and 141-147 

Rome, Christians in 28 

Decline of 34 

Literature, law, and arts of 45 

Burning of 97 

Persecution in 96-100 

Family life in 212 

Ramsay, W. M., quoted 230 

Resources, Material 176 

Developed by Industries 175 

San Domingo, Work in 86 

Saracens, Conquests of 60-61 

Sara via, Adrianus , , , , 71 



347 



INDEX. 



Page 

School village, The 202 

Science, Carey's work in 195 

Carey, A tribute to 195-196 

Gulick brothers and 197 

Livingstone's work in 196 

Livingstone, A tribute to 196-197 

Missionary achievement in. . . . 193-198 

Research in expensive 131-132 

Scope of work in 194, 197-198 

Scriptures, Translation of 27, 35, 62 

Quoted. 128, 151, 199, 221, 233, 307, 319 

Sell, Canon E., quoted 246 

Selbourne, Earl of, quoted 222 

Serapeum, The 35 

Sergeant, John 68 

Service, Investment in 15-91 

In age of controversy 31 

Cost of 45 

Rendered by Denmark 52 

Among Slavs 53 

In Far East 59 

In Far North 51, 56-57 

In Europe 47, 54-55 

Among special races 59-62 

Service, Centers of — 

Abyssinia, 27, 35; Achia, 24; Af- 
ghanistan, 72; Africa, 27-28; Al- 
exandria, 24; America — Central, 
South, 64; Antioch — Syrian, Pi- 
sidian,24; Arabia, 20, 24, 27, 72; 
Armenia, 24, 27; Asia Minor, 

20,23; Athens, 24; Austria 36 

Bactria, 27; Bavaria, 49; Berea, 24; 
Bithynia, 20, 24; Bohemia, 55; 
British Isles, 39, 73; Bulgaria, 54- 

55; Burgundy, 48; Brazil 63-64 

Caesarea, 24; Capadocia, 20, 23; 
Canada, 65-66; Caria, 24; Col- 
losse, 20; Corinth, 24; Crete, 24; 

Cylicia, 24; Cyprus 24 

Dalmathia, 24; Damascus, 24; Den- 
mark 51-52 

Edessa, 20, 27; Egypt, 20-24, 27; 
England, 41; Ephesus, 24; Ethi- 
opia, 20, 27; Europe 73 

Finland, 56; Florida, 65; France, 37; 

Frisia 49 

Galathia, 20-23; Gaul, 27, 37; 
Georgia, Europe, 35; Georgia, 
U. S. A., 65; Germany, 47-49, 50- 

51; Greenland 57-58 

Hebrides Islands, 41; Hierapolis, 20, 24 
Iceland, 57; India, 21, 27, 76; In- 
dies, West, 63, 70; Ireland, 36, 

39-40; Italy 24 

Jerusalem, 20, 24; Joppa 24 

Labrador, 57; Laodicea, 20; Lap- 
land, 56; Lombardy, 48; Lybia, 
20-24; Lycia, 24; Lyconia, 23; 

Lydia 24 

Macedonia, 20, 24; Mauretania, 20- 
24; Media, 27; Mesopotamia, 
20, 24, 27; Mexico, 64; Moravia, 75 
Noricum, 36; Northumbria, 43; 

Nubia 27 

Orkney Islands 41 



Page 
Service — 

Palestine, 83; Paphlagonia, 24; Pan- 
nonia, 49; Paphos, 24; Paraguay, 
64; Parthia, 21, 27; Patmos, 24; 
Paris, 28; Pergamum, 24; Perge, 
24; Pisidia, 24; Phrygia, 20, 24; 
Persia, 27, 72; Philadelphia, 24; 
Philippi, 24; Peru, 64; Poland, 
56; Pomerania, 56; Pontus, 24; 

Ptolemais 24 

Rome, 24; Ruegen, Island of, 56; 

Russia 55-56 

Salamis, 24; Sardis, 24; Scythia, 20; 
Scotland, 40-41; Sidon, 24; 
Smyrna, 24; Spain, 24, 27, 35-38, 
Suabia, 49; Sweden, 52; Switzer- 
land, 48-49; Syria 72 

Tarsus, 24; Texas, 65; Thessalo- 
nica, 24; Thessaly, 24; Thrace, 20; 
Thyatira, 24; Tyre, 24; Troas.. . 24 

United States of America 65-68 

Vienna 36 

Western World 62-70 

Shinto, Extent of 73 

Characteristics of 248-249 

Siam, Work in 81 

Slavs, First converts from 53 

Smiles, Samuel, quoted Ill 

Smith, Dr. Judson, quoted 254 

Speer, Dr. Robert E., quoted. 262, 265, 121 

Stanley, Sir Henry M., quoted 303 

Slavery in Roman Empire 211-215 

First order against 216 

Social and Humanitarian 209-220 

Life, in time of Christ 211 

Evils, kinds of . 212-215 

Roman Empire, Social condition in, 

211-212 

In Northern Europe 215 

Evils, under Christian governments. 21 8 

Some figures 219-220 

Effort organized. 219 

Conditions in India 210 

Changes in India 216 

Ideals under non-Christian faiths . . 248 

Societies, Bible, Rapid rise of 78 

Work of 79 

Missionary .68, 70, 71, 76, 77, 79-80, 81 

Great increase in 77-78 

Work of 76-88 

Income of 76, 133-134 

South Sea Islands 164 

Stratton, The Hon. F. S., quoted 168 

Sutherland, Dr. A., quoted 254 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, quoted 231 

Stewardship, Christian.. 258, 286-287, 316 
Syria, Work in 83 

Taoism, Extent of 73 

Characteristics of 248 

Temple, Sir Richard, quoted 183 

Temples, Heathen, destroyed 64 

Tertullian, quoted 25, 37 

Thompson, Charles L., quoted 140 

Thompson, Mary A., quoted 161 

Trent, Council of 110 



348 



INDEX. 



Page 

Turkey, Work in 82 

Tboburn, Bishop J. M., quoted 328 

Ulfilas, Among the Goths 35-36 

United States, Work in 86-87, 157 

Strength of Protestantism in 157 

Vandals 28, 35 

Venn, Henry, quoted 173 

Visigoths 35 

Vladimir, Conversion of 56 

Waldenses, The 105-106 

Washburn, President, quoted 203-204 

War, Cost of. .129-130, 263, 269, 279-280 

Watts, Isaac, quoted 128 

Weltz, Baron Justinian Von 74 

Wesley, John 75 

Charles, quoted 139, 295 

Whittier, John G., quoted 209 

Widowhood, Enforced 211, 216 

Child 241 

Wealth, Christian Nations, of 156-158 

Increase of 277 

Use of by Church 258-260 

Use of in war 129-130 

Williams, John 114, 294 

Woman, Place in Roman life 212-213 

Property and 212, 217 

Place in India 216-217 

Place in China 216 

Under Christianity .... 217 

Position under Christian and non- 
Christian faiths contrasted 226 

Work, First, in the West 62-63 

Character of, In Europe 58 

Amount beyond computation 89 

Defects of 65 

Devotion to, in Western World.. .65-67 



Page 

Work- 
Difficulties of 46, 52, 57 

Earnestness of 24-25, 30, 46 

Intensiveness of ... 89 

Of Jesuits and Pilgrim Fathers com- 
pared 67-68 

Present state of 87-88 

Protestant, in eighteenth century.. 78 
Results of, in Western World. . . .65-68 

Universality of 88 

Present, Where carried on 236 

Difficulties of 238 

Workers — In Northern States of Amer- 
ica 66 

Canada 66 

England 41-45 

Frisia 49 

Germany 47, 50-51 

Ireland, Scotland 39-41 

Iceland, Greenland 57-58 

Western World 68-70 

Among Danes 51-52 

Norwegians. ; 52-53 

North American Indians 66-69 

Distinguished 89 

Moravian 70, 75 

Raised 25, 58-59 

Present distribution of 236-237 

Roll of, not closed 91 

Unknown 26, 30 

World movement— Figures 310 

The larger result 309-313 

The Church itself 313 

Will it pay? 307-317 

Worship, Ancestor 248 

Cost of 287 

Zinzendorf , Count 70, 75 

Zwingli 71 



349 



NGV S 1913 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pre 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



